New Ties
by Aurrawings
Summary: Hayli is a teenage gymnast who's life is turned upside down when she discovers Optimus unconscious in a crater and Megatron fast advancing. The Autobots become a part of her world, and she makes a particular friend that will lead to so much more.
1. Chapter 1

I patted my face dry after a shower at the end of my gymnastics class and slung the towel over my shoulder. My shoulder-length brown hair, still damp, plastered against my face as I got dressed. Truly, I hated my gymnastics class, I mean come on. Skinny, desperate girls stuffed into leotards and doing back flips for an audience? I don't think so. My mom signed me up for the class because she thought my agility could be put to good use.

Slipping my uniform into my old duffel, I shouldered my bag and left the gym searching for Mom's car in the parking lot.

"Hayli! Over here!" my mother's voice shouted and I spotted her car. I ducked into the passenger seat and buckled up; downtown Detroit at rush hour was not a pretty place to be. We swung by the park to pick up my sister Tess and were back home relatively quickly.

"Hey mom, I'm going for a walk." I called as I threw my bag through the door and started tugging on a hoodie.

"Uh uh." She said, pointing to my bag on the floor. "Take care of that first, then ask me again." I rolled my head back in a 'why are you doing this now' gesture and started to say something sarcastic. "Without attitude, or you can forget about going out." I grumbled, took my bag upstairs to my room, and came back down.

"Bye mom!" I called over my shoulder. She told me to be back by dark and I waved without looking behind me. I half noticed a camera bot fly over me in the direction of the forest, but I just ignored it. I jogged down the sidewalk, heading to the edge of town, and slid down the slope by the highway to get into the woods.

Ah, the woods, my favorite place to be. It was here I could relax and be myself with no one to make fun of me. It was also a training ground to practice my skills. I leapt onto a large rock, then swung up into a tree. Climbing up a ways, I jumped from my branch onto an adjacent tree. I was stopped when I nearly plummeted twenty feet because of an earth-shattering boom coming from not too far away from me.

A bit more cautiously, I picked my way through the trees and dropped to the ground at the edge of a clearing. What I saw shocked me.

There was an Autobot lying unconscious in a crater and a much larger, triumphant looking robot was standing at the far side of the clearing.

I suddenly had a flashback of a newscast a few weeks ago. The unconscious Autobot's name was Optimus Prime, and at the moment he didn't look too good.

On impulse, I left the cover of the trees and dashed to Optimus' side. The enemy bot spotted me and sneered, striding across the clearing.

"Hey! Wake the hell up! You gotta move or we're both gonna get fried!" I shouted at him, trying my best to shake his shoulder, though it was kind of hard when he was a giant robot and I was a 5'3", 110 lb girl.

I looked up to see that the evil bot was approaching, and I identified him as a Decepticon. He drew closer and had now raised his weapon. I shook Optimus again.

"Get up already!" I yelled. His optics remained dark, and I looked up in time to see the Decepticon aim at Optimus, the weapon attached to his forearm starting to give off a purplish glow as it charged.

_We're fucked..._ I thought right as he fired. Before I knew it, I was thirty feet in the air and moving fast away from the clearing.

"HOLY CRAP!" I was bug-eyed as Optimus ran from the battle, me clutched in his hand.

"Are you alright?" he asked from behind his battle mask.

"GEEZ! A little warning next time will ya? Yeah, I'm fine, but you're an Autobot, Optimus, right?" I sensed him smile behind his mask.

"Yes, and you a-? "He was cut off as a ball of plasma energy exploded against his back and he fell, dropping me. I landed hard, not on my feet, and felt something snap. I hoped to God it wasn't my spine...

The Decepticon crashed through the trees, weapon trained on Optimus.

"Hand over the All Spark fragment, Prime." the bot said.

Optimus shakily rose and seemed to be searching for something. Looking back at the Decepticon, he glared and spoke.

"You won't even get it from my cold, offline servo, Megatron!" I got to my feet with a groan. It seemed it wasn't my spine that had broken, it had been my ribs. I scrambled/stumbled away, tripped over a tree root and fell on my face.

"Oww..." I looked up, and inches in front of me was what appeared to be a blue crystal. I picked it up; it was longer than my hand, and faintly started glowing when I touched it. I held it in my hand and started to sprint for the highway.

Megatron noticed me running and spotted the glowing blue shard in my hand. Stepping easily around Optimus, he snagged me in his not-so-gentle grip and raised me far above the ground.

If my ribs weren't broken before, they certainly were now. I struggled and thrashed to get out of his hold.

"It's no use, pathetic organic. Relinquish the fragment or lose your life." I stared, adrenaline pumping through me, and without a thought I plunged the diamond-sharp crystal into his hand.

Megatron roared as a jolt of electricity passed from the key out into both of us. I shit you not; I _felt_ the shock go directly to my heart. Megatron dropped me, holding his injured hand, and once again I thumped on the forest floor. I noticed my hand, palm up on the ground, had a slice in it from the edge of the fragment.

"OW! God! Would you guys quit dropping me! Geez!" I couldn't really run anymore, but I hobbled as fast as I could to the highway when Optimus tackled Megatron again.

Struggling up the embankment, I made it onto the road, only to be nearly pancaked by a speeding yellow car as it whipped past me fast enough to make me lose my balance.

I hit the ground on one knee, a hand to my chest, which was starting to feel weird...

"Hey! Watch where you're going you-..." I shut up as the car transformed and dumped a little girl onto the pavement. She looked about eight.

"Bumblebee! Wha'digya do that for?!" she complained. She turned and saw me, a quizzical look on her face as she took in my obviously injured appearance.

"Whoa! Who are you? How did you get hurt?" Bumblebee asked incredulously.

"My name is Hayli..." I said and explained what had happened. At the sound of sirens I looked to see a green army truck, a black and gold motorcycle, and an ambulance come barreling around a turn, heading towards us. They stopped near us and transformed.

"Prime is fighting Megatron..." Bumblebee said quickly.

"Prime?! By himself?! I thought we told that glitchhead to wait for us!" the ambulance bot spoke up. He sounded old and kind of grouchy. Spotting me, he looked surprised. "What is this organic doing here?"

"What is _she_ doing here?" I retaliated, pointing at the little girl.

"That's Sari, she's with us!" the big green Autobot said.

"Wait, Sari Sumdac? Isaac Sumdac's daughter?" I asked her. She nodded yes. I started to say something, but a huge BOOM! Made us all turn to the forest.

I had about half a second to process Optimus' body come flying out of the trees, blown backward by one of Megatron's shots, before he crashed into the small group of Autobots.

And me.


	2. Chapter 2

_I'm dead, my God, I'm freaking dead... Is this hell? Must be... that freaking beeping noise WILL NOT STOP..._

I cracked open an eyelid, only to be nearly blinded by a fluorescent light above me.

Beep...Beep...Beep...Beep...

Groaning, I opened my eyes to find myself in a hospital bed. My mom was instantly hovering over me, her face a mixture of emotion.

"Hayli, honey, you're in the ICU in Detroit, you've been in a coma for a few days. Do you remember what happened?" I sat up, despite my mother's protests, wincing when my entire body screamed with pain.

"Ahh...Mom, watch it!" I yelped when she hugged me in relief. Flopping back, I sighed, turning to watch a doctor as he walked in the door.

"Oh, I see you are awake. How are you feeling?" I had to try really hard not to start cracking up; the dude had a major Indian accent going on.

"Really sore, but otherwise okay I think." I managed a small grin and the doctor stepped up by my bed. Taking out a small light, he shined it in each of my eyes while I blinked repeatedly. He took the rest of my vitals then turned to my mother.

"She'll survive. She has a few broken ribs and is a little banged up, but we're going to keep her a few days just to make sure she doesn't develop any internal injuries." My mom nodded, coming over and kissing me on the forehead after the doctor left.

"See you tomorrow, I have to go pick up Tess from a friend's house" I waved as she left the doorway.

Ever been in the hospital at night? Freaky as shit.

Every little noise was making me jump, and I couldn't really get comfortable on the bed. Rolling over to see my clock, I sighed when it only said 8:47 p.m.

Boredom sets in fast when there is nothing to do, but I decided to try to sleep anyway. I must have dozed off, because I snapped awake a few hours later for some reason.

Listening for a minute, I heard a loud thud and a clank of metal on metal.

"Bulkhead! Hold still!" I heard a familiar voice saying. And it was followed by another.

"Both of you! Shut up before you wake all of Detroit!" It was Sari; apparently she had brought Bumblebee and Bulkhead with her.

I walked over to the window, opened it, and peered down.

"What are you doing?" I saw the two Autobots in a hopeless attempt at a human pyramid, with Sari on Bumblebee's shoulder.

"We're supposed to bring you back to the base, you're not safe here." Bee piped up. I must have had a 'huh?' face, because Sari motioned me back and had Bumblebee set her in my room.

"You are supposed to come with us. Get whatever you need from here and let's go." I stammered for a minute, groggy still, then simply complied. I yanked the IV out of the back of my hand, wincing slightly, then crossed the room to a chair that had my old backpack sitting on it with a note pinned to the front.

'To make you feel at home' it said in my mom's handwriting. I opened the bag, and smiled.

"Thank you, mom!" There were a few changes of clean clothes, as well as some snacks, deodorant, soap, shampoo, conditioner, and um... lady things. I changed quickly into a t-shirt and jeans, pulling on a hoodie over myself. Stepping out of the bathroom, I put on the pair of sneakers I'd had on earlier and slung my backpack over my shoulder.

Sari jumped out the window, was caught by Bee, and motioned for me to do the same. Gasping when Bumblebee caught me, I rubbed my side gingerly.

"Broken ribs, gotta be careful." I sheepishly said. Sari looked sympathetic.

"The base is on the other side of town, we'll be there in no time, though" She laughed when Bee transformed, dragging me into his car mode, and he sped off. I was trying my best not to nod off on the way to their base, but Sari had to wake me up a few times. Stumbling out of Bumblebee when we arrived, Sari led me into the base.

We entered a huge 'living room' of sorts. The couch looked like it was made of rock, but a _huge_ flat screen and game console totally made up for it. Old conveyor belts and machinery suggested this had once been some sort of plant. The rest of the Autobots filed into the room, but frankly, I was too beat to care.

I sat heavily on the concrete floor, my eyelids drooping. Sari looked at me, then back at the Autobots. She was all to familiar with tired-ass syndrome, and I heard them quietly discussing where I could sleep. Yawning hugely, I slumped and closed my eyes, not even trying to fight staying awake anymore.

I felt myself being gently picked up, and managed to fight open an eyelid long enough to get a glimpse of black and gold metal...

…

"...li...yli...Hayli..." I moaned, not wanting to get up, and opened my eyes. When I did, there was an eight year old girl's face about half an inch from mine.

"AH!" I yelled, startling and causing us to crack heads. She rubbed her forehead and smiled at me.

"You sleep a lot. I just wanted to let you know we're going out." Sari said. I waved her off, sitting up in bed and yawning. I noticed with slight distaste that EVERYTHING in this room was pink. I stretched, closing my eyes. When I looked around again, Sari was gone and after a little search, I discovered so were the Autobots.

Tiredly plodding through the halls, I checked out the rooms whose doors were open. One was almost entirely speed metal, with lots of speakers and stacks of CD's. Bumblebee's room, I guessed. The only other room that was open was near the end of the hall. I looked in and was awestruck.

A giant tree was growing in the middle of the room, its upper branches reaching through the hole in the ceiling to the open sky. Various objects lined the walls of the room, and I noticed a 'keep your chin up' poster of a dog hanging from a tree limb.

I stepped up to the tree, it would be an excellent one to climb, and since no one was home I had nothing to do. Ignoring my ribs for the most part, I shimmied up the huge trunk to the first branch, climbing until I found a comfortable branch just below the ceiling level. The breeze played with my hair, and the warm rays of sun filtered through the tree's canopy.

Relaxing, I stared at the sky, dozing off.

...

I woke later, feeling refreshed, and moved a bit on my branch, stopping when I heard a small commotion. Listening, I put together that they were back and looking for me. I was about to climb down when Bumblebee burst into the room. He opened his mouth but another voice, much closer to me, was the one that spoke.

"I found her." I whirled to see the black and gold ninja bot hanging upside down about two feet away from me. Who did he think he was? Freaking Spiderman?! I was about to say something to him for startling me, but right then my supporting foot slipped and I fell from the branch, expecting to hit the ground once again.

My fall was stopped abruptly, and I craned my head back to see the ninja bot holding onto the back of my hoodie.

"I got you, don't worry." I thanked him when he set me on the ground.

"I don't think I've caught your name before, what is it?" I asked.

"Prowl." he replied, looking up at Bumblebee. "Would you mind leaving my room?" he said. Bee backed out and I stammered an apology.

"Oh, this is your room... makes sense now. I'm sorry, I should have asked before climbing your tree." He waved me off.

"No harm done, but I think Optimus wants to talk to you." I nodded and trotted out of his room, back to the main room where the rest had gathered.

"'Sup?" I asked. Optimus looked down at me, relief on his face. He explained that they all started to worry when they couldn't find me, they thought the Decepticons had taken me. I shook my head, saying I was fine. "Did you want to talk to me about something?" I inquired.

"Yes, about what happened in the woods a few days ago, actually. First, I want to thank you for trying to save me. Second, I wish to apologize for injuring you, we had to take you to one of those...organic repair locations."

"You mean a hospital?" I interrupted.

He nodded. "Remember when you stabbed the All Spark fragment into Megatron's hand? How it seemed to shock you?" Optimus said.

"Yeah I remember. How could I forget? It hurt like hell!" I said. He gestured, turning to Ratchet, saying that he might know why it zapped us. The old medic stepped forward, kneeling down to my level.

"Kid, I think what happened to you is called Spark fusion. The All Spark sliver must have merged you and Megatron when you stabbed him. Honestly, I don't know much about the process, only to know it's happened only a very few times in the entire existence of our race. I'll do some research to try and figure this out, but I also know when something happens to one member of the fusion, it also happens to the other..." Ratchet explained in an even tone. I stood for a moment, trying to process this.

"So if Megatron like, gets shot in the foot, _I _get shot in the foot?! Or if he dies..." I started to freak a little bit.

"Unfortunately, yes, but we know this is why the Decepticons want you so badly. Megatron being linked to an organic means he is vulnerable. You are more easily hurt than one of us, and so you can see why Megatron doesn't want you out of his sight." Ratchet said. I stammered for a minute, my mind still reeling, went over, and flopped on the not-so-soft couch.

"Leave her alone for a little while, she's had a lot to process." I heard Prowl's voice say quietly and the Autobots stepped away from me, going back to their daily tasks. I saw Sari in my peripheral vision, she came over and said from behind the couch,

"Don't worry too much, these guys will protect you, you'll be fine." Sari said reassuringly. I said nothing, then suddenly cursed and whirled, remembering something.

"Do you have a computer anywhere? I forgot to tell my mom I left, she'll think I've been kidnapped." I said quickly. Sari nodded and pointed down the hall.

"I keep a laptop in my room, the one you slept in last night, it should be on the nightstand." she said. I nodded my thanks and jogged to her room, seeing the computer I instantly turned it on and got on my Yahoo! account.

Like I thought, my mother had been freaking out, she had sent like thirty e-mails in her paranoia. I rolled my eyes, typing up a quick e-mail, and sent it to her.

_ Hey Mom, I'm fine. I haven't been kidnapped so don't worry. I'm somewhere safe, but I can't tell you where. Don't call the police or anything, but I don't know if I'll be back for a while. P.S. Please don't forget to feed my cat! P.P.S. Do NOT let Tess in my room! I don't want her breaking my computer again!_

_ Love and hugs, H._

Sighing, I shut the laptop and looked out a window. It was just starting to get dark outside. I plodded back into the living room where Bumblebee and Sari were in the middle of a video game. Prowl was watching, annoyed they had turned off a nature special he was watching. He glanced up, saw me and I smiled, putting a finger to my lips.

I crept silently up behind the couch, Bee and Sari were too intent on winning a battle to even notice. Grinning, at the same time, I touched both of their shoulders while saying BOO! They both screamed and dropped their controllers. Their avatars were immediately killed and they looked at me in complaint.

"Hey! We were kicking serious zombie butt!" Bumblebee whined. I cracked up laughing and I noticed the other Autobots chuckling as well.

"Video games rot your brain, though they are fun." I said, smiling. Sari rolled her eyes, getting up from the couch and trotting over to a gigantic movie rack along the wall. Looking back at me, she peered at my face.

"Have your eyes always been that color?" she asked.

"What? Hazel?" I said.

"Nope, blue." Sari replied and pointed to a shard of glass in the corner. I looked and was shocked. My eyes weren't just blue, they were what Crayola would call 'lightning blue' either that or a mix between it and turquoise. It hit me as an afterthought that it was the same shade as the Autobot's optics... Sari snapped me out of it though.

"Hayli's right, games are bad for you. How about a scary movie?" she said, scanning the titles and listing off the ones she liked. I walked over, looking, and pulled out a movie, Avatar, the 2046 remake.

"How about this? I know it's not scary but I really like it." I said. Sari made a face.

"Nah. Ooh! How about this?" she said, pulling out The Hills Have Eyes. I didn't really like that movie, but it was their house, so I went with it. I didn't really scare me anymore, but I just wasn't into the pee your pants movies. I changed the subject.

"Sari? You hungry?" I asked, mostly because my stomach was growling. She nodded while popping in the movie, hurrying back to sit next to Bumblebee as it started.

"You want us to pause it for you?" Bee asked. I shook my head and they reluctantly let it play. Going back to Sari's room, I opened my backpack and got out a bag of Doritos for me and a candy bar for Sari. Throwing the candy at her from the edge of the living room, she caught it and I set my food down on the floor, starting to walk back down the hall.

"Hayli? Aren't you going to watch the movie?" Sari called. I shook my head politely no as a gory scene appeared to splatter the camera with blood. I walked back past Sari's room and continued past Bumblebee's. Stopping outside Prowl's room, I saw he was sitting cross-legged at the base of his tree with his back to the door.

Taking my shoes off, I crept across the floor to him, being what I thought was completely silent. I had made it about halfway to him when he whirled and I felt something go whizzing by my head. I turned to see a sort of three-bladed ninja star imbedded in the wall.

"What was that for!?" I said. He looked at me apologetically and retrieved his weapon.

"Sorry, I thought you were Bumblebee. Were you trying to sneak up on me?" Prowl asked. I nodded and he smiled. "Not quiet enough, though better than most, I'll say. Why aren't you watching the movie with the other two?" he asked.

"I don't really like the one they're watching. I wanted to see Avatar." I replied.

"I see. You know, we have another television, you could watch it there." Prowl said.

"Really? Um, would you want to watch it with me?" I asked. He shrugged.

"Sure, that movie is one that I like as well." He retrieved the movie and I followed him to another part of the plant where there was another flat screen set up in front of a rock couch. Prowl handed the movie to me and I popped it in, settling down on the couch next to him. The opening previews rolled...

….

**I actually wrote this story a while ago, so updates will be fast. Tell me what you think!**


	3. Chapter 3

"...li...yli...Hayli..." I moaned, not wanting to get up, and opened my eyes. When I did, there was an eight year old girl's face about half an inch from mine.

"AH!" I yelled, startling and causing us to crack heads. She rubbed her forehead and smiled at me.

"You sleep a lot. I just wanted to let you know we're going out." Sari said. I waved her off, sitting up in bed and yawning. I noticed with slight distaste that EVERYTHING in this room was pink. I stretched, closing my eyes. When I looked around again, Sari was gone and after a little search, I discovered so were the Autobots.

Tiredly plodding through the halls, I checked out the rooms whose doors were open. One was almost entirely speed metal, with lots of speakers and stacks of CD's. Bumblebee's room, I guessed. The only other room that was open was near the end of the hall. I looked in and was awestruck.

A giant tree was growing in the middle of the room, its upper branches reaching through the hole in the ceiling to the open sky. Various objects lined the walls of the room, and I noticed a 'keep your chin up' poster of a dog hanging from a tree limb.

I stepped up to the tree, it would be an excellent one to climb, and since no one was home I had nothing to do. Ignoring my ribs for the most part, I shimmied up the huge trunk to the first branch, climbing until I found a comfortable branch just below the ceiling level. The breeze played with my hair, and the warm rays of sun filtered through the tree's canopy.

Relaxing, I stared at the sky, dozing off.

...

I woke later, feeling refreshed, and moved a bit on my branch, stopping when I heard a small commotion. Listening, I put together that they were back and looking for me. I was about to climb down when Bumblebee burst into the room. He opened his mouth but another voice, much closer to me, was the one that spoke.

"I found her." I whirled to see the black and gold ninja bot hanging upside down about two feet away from me. Who did he think he was? Freaking Spiderman?! I was about to say something to him for startling me, but right then my supporting foot slipped and I fell from the branch, expecting to hit the ground once again.

My fall was stopped abruptly, and I craned my head back to see the ninja bot holding onto the back of my hoodie.

"I got you, don't worry." I thanked him when he set me on the ground.

"I don't think I've caught your name before, what is it?" I asked.

"Prowl." he replied, looking up at Bumblebee. "Would you mind leaving my room?" he said. Bee backed out and I stammered an apology.

"Oh, this is your room... makes sense now. I'm sorry, I should have asked before climbing your tree." He waved me off.

"No harm done, but I think Optimus wants to talk to you." I nodded and trotted out of his room, back to the main room where the rest had gathered.

"'Sup?" I asked. Optimus looked down at me, relief on his face. He explained that they all started to worry when they couldn't find me, they thought the Decepticons had taken me. I shook my head, saying I was fine. "Did you want to talk to me about something?" I inquired.

"Yes, about what happened in the woods a few days ago, actually. First, I want to thank you for trying to save me. Second, I wish to apologize for injuring you, we had to take you to one of those...organic repair locations."

"You mean a hospital?" I interrupted.

He nodded. "Remember when you stabbed the All Spark fragment into Megatron's hand? How it seemed to shock you?" Optimus said.

"Yeah I remember. How could I forget? It hurt like hell!" I said. He gestured, turning to Ratchet, saying that he might know why it zapped us. The old medic stepped forward, kneeling down to my level.

"Kid, I think what happened to you is called Spark fusion. The All Spark sliver must have merged you and Megatron when you stabbed him. Honestly, I don't know much about the process, only to know it's happened only a very few times in the entire existence of our race. I'll do some research to try and figure this out, but I also know when something happens to one member of the fusion, it also happens to the other..." Ratchet explained in an even tone. I stood for a moment, trying to process this.

"So if Megatron like, gets shot in the foot, _I _get shot in the foot?! Or if he dies..." I started to freak a little bit.

"Unfortunately, yes, but we know this is why the Decepticons want you so badly. Megatron being linked to an organic means he is vulnerable. You are more easily hurt than one of us, and so you can see why Megatron doesn't want you out of his sight." Ratchet said. I stammered for a minute, my mind still reeling, went over, and flopped on the not-so-soft couch.

"Leave her alone for a little while, she's had a lot to process." I heard Prowl's voice say quietly and the Autobots stepped away from me, going back to their daily tasks. I saw Sari in my peripheral vision, she came over and said from behind the couch,

"Don't worry too much, these guys will protect you, you'll be fine." Sari said reassuringly. I said nothing, then suddenly cursed and whirled, remembering something.

"Do you have a computer anywhere? I forgot to tell my mom I left, she'll think I've been kidnapped." I said quickly. Sari nodded and pointed down the hall.

"I keep a laptop in my room, the one you slept in last night, it should be on the nightstand." she said. I nodded my thanks and jogged to her room, seeing the computer I instantly turned it on and got on my Yahoo! account.

Like I thought, my mother had been freaking out, she had sent like thirty e-mails in her paranoia. I rolled my eyes, typing up a quick e-mail, and sent it to her.

_ Hey Mom, I'm fine. I haven't been kidnapped so don't worry. I'm somewhere safe, but I can't tell you where. Don't call the police or anything, but I don't know if I'll be back for a while. P.S. Please don't forget to feed my cat! P.P.S. Do NOT let Tess in my room! I don't want her breaking my computer again!_

_ Love and hugs, H._

Sighing, I shut the laptop and looked out a window. It was just starting to get dark outside. I plodded back into the living room where Bumblebee and Sari were in the middle of a video game. Prowl was watching, annoyed they had turned off a nature special he was watching. He glanced up, saw me and I smiled, putting a finger to my lips.

I crept silently up behind the couch, Bee and Sari were too intent on winning a battle to even notice. Grinning, at the same time, I touched both of their shoulders while saying BOO! They both screamed and dropped their controllers. Their avatars were immediately killed and they looked at me in complaint.

"Hey! We were kicking serious zombie butt!" Bumblebee whined. I cracked up laughing and I noticed the other Autobots chuckling as well.

"Video games rot your brain, though they are fun." I said, smiling. Sari rolled her eyes, getting up from the couch and trotting over to a gigantic movie rack along the wall. Looking back at me, she peered at my face.

"Have your eyes always been that color?" she asked.

"What? Hazel?" I said.

"Nope, blue." Sari replied and pointed to a shard of glass in the corner. I looked and was shocked. My eyes weren't just blue, they were what Crayola would call 'lightning blue' either that or a mix between it and turquoise. It hit me as an afterthought that it was the same shade as the Autobot's optics... Sari snapped me out of it though.

"Hayli's right, games are bad for you. How about a scary movie?" she said, scanning the titles and listing off the ones she liked. I walked over, looking, and pulled out a movie, Avatar, the 2046 remake.

"How about this? I know it's not scary but I really like it." I said. Sari made a face.

"Nah. Ooh! How about this?" she said, pulling out The Hills Have Eyes. I didn't really like that movie, but it was their house, so I went with it. I didn't really scare me anymore, but I just wasn't into the pee your pants movies. I changed the subject.

"Sari? You hungry?" I asked, mostly because my stomach was growling. She nodded while popping in the movie, hurrying back to sit next to Bumblebee as it started.

"You want us to pause it for you?" Bee asked. I shook my head and they reluctantly let it play. Going back to Sari's room, I opened my backpack and got out a bag of Doritos for me and a candy bar for Sari. Throwing the candy at her from the edge of the living room, she caught it and I set my food down on the floor, starting to walk back down the hall.

"Hayli? Aren't you going to watch the movie?" Sari called. I shook my head politely no as a gory scene appeared to splatter the camera with blood. I walked back past Sari's room and continued past Bumblebee's. Stopping outside Prowl's room, I saw he was sitting cross-legged at the base of his tree with his back to the door.

Taking my shoes off, I crept across the floor to him, being what I thought was completely silent. I had made it about halfway to him when he whirled and I felt something go whizzing by my head. I turned to see a sort of three-bladed ninja star imbedded in the wall.

"What was that for!?" I said. He looked at me apologetically and retrieved his weapon.

"Sorry, I thought you were Bumblebee. Were you trying to sneak up on me?" Prowl asked. I nodded and he smiled. "Not quiet enough, though better than most, I'll say. Why aren't you watching the movie with the other two?" he asked.

"I don't really like the one they're watching. I wanted to see Avatar." I replied.

"I see. You know, we have another television, you could watch it there." Prowl said.

"Really? Um, would you want to watch it with me?" I asked. He shrugged.

"Sure, that movie is one that I like as well." He retrieved the movie and I followed him to another part of the plant where there was another flat screen set up in front of a rock couch. Prowl handed the movie to me and I popped it in, settling down on the couch next to him. The opening previews rolled...


	4. Chapter 4

"Aw, that's so cute..." I heard a voice quietly say after a small beep. Sari...

"Ha! Major blackmail!" I heard someone else say. It was Bumblebee. I must have dozed off during the movie because I could sense the sun beaming through the windows. And was just me or was I leaning against something metal? I opened my eyes to see Sari and Bumblebee looking at a camera and snickering.

Then I noticed why they were laughing. I must have fallen over onto Prowl while I was sleeping and now they had pictures. Moving away quickly, I saw he was just waking up, his optics getting brighter when he realized what was going on. Prowl got off the couch and snatched the camera, and I heard a few beeping sounds before he stopped for a moment. Did his face tinge the tiniest bit pink? It must have just been the light, he pressed a button and the camera emitted a lower beep. He handed the camera back to Bumblebee.

"What did you do that for? We wanted to make a scrapbook." Bumblebee said.

"I distinctly heard 'blackmail'." I said, frowning. Bee looked at me sheepishly. I was blushing fiercely, Prowl may have been a robot, but he was still a guy...

Prowl left quietly, disappearing down the hall, and I playfully grabbed Sari.

"You little turd! You got me while I was sleeping!" She laughed and called for Bumblebee to help her. I put my hand over her mouth, but the little bugger _licked my hand_ and squirmed free while I tried to wipe spit off on my pants. She giggled, taking off down the hallway, and man, that girl was fast! I jumped up, gained on her quickly, and just as I went around the corner...

BAM! Right into a door that was suddenly flung open. My nose took the worst of it and I stumbled back, both hands over my face. Bulkhead stepped around the door and looked at me, surprised. I looked at my hands to see them streaked in blood. Ouchy... Sari came trotting back, her smile turned to concern when she saw me in pain.

"Ooh, that looks like it hurt... Nice going, Bulk." She said.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you. Are you alright?" he said, leaning down and examining my face.

"I'm fine." I felt my nose, not broken, but really, really tender. "It's not broken, thank God, but you gave me a hell of a nosebleed." I said, slightly nasally since I was still holding my nose.

...

It's amazing how a hot shower seems to just melt your problems away. I scrubbed off all the grime since I'd left the hospital, steam filling the room since I liked to nearly scald myself in the water. The plant's bathroom wasn't too fancy, but at least it had a toilet, sink, and the hot water worked well.

Stepping out, shivering from being wet and leaving the hot shower, I towel-dried my hair and dried myself off, dropping the towel, I reached for my clothes before I realized I made a major 'duh!' I had left my clean clothes in Sari's room, and Sari had taken my dirty ones back and put them in her hamper.

_ Shit._ I thought, wrapping my towel around myself. I peeked into the hallway, no one there, so I snatched my hairbrush and darted into Sari's room, shutting the door behind me just as I heard footsteps. Sighing, and feeling safer now, I rummaged in my backpack and pulled out a change of clothes. I dropped my towel and started to put on some underwear. I barely got them past my shins before a certain yellow bot burst through the door.

"Bumblebee! What the hell! Get out of here!" I screeched, failing at trying to cover my chest and cross my legs at the same time. My undies then became a device solely to trip me, and I fell. Not one of those, 'oh I meant to do that' falls, but one of those falls where you can't get your hands down and you crash to the ground humiliatingly.

Just my luck, Prowl and Sari appeared in the doorway. Sari quickly assessed my predicament and shoved both of them out of her room and slammed the door, chewing Bee out in the hallway.

"You can't just barge in when someone's getting dressed! What's wrong with you?!" she reprimanded. Damn, next time I went out, I was gonna have to buy that kid some ice cream.

I dressed quickly, my face hot from embarrassment and tired of everything going wrong. I heard Bee complaining out in the hallway.

"How was I supposed to know?! Why do you humans wear clothes anyway?" he said. I heard Sari try to put the explanation into words and sighed. They were giant robots, they didn't _wear_ clothing. Knowing I'd have to leave eventually, and that I had a job application to turn in a short while, (I couldn't live off the small allowance left in my wallet anymore, I had an application to a small café called Espresso Yourself,) I decided to bite the bullet and stepped out in the hallway.

They went quiet and I sighed, my face still feeling flushed. "Clothes are to cover private areas, _especially_ on a female." I said. Bumblebee still looked confused, and Prowl spoke up.

"I believe clothing to them is much like our armor, so that means..." he trailed off and I guess that was a sufficient Cybertronian explanation because Bee looked extremely embarrassed and apologized up and down to me. I waved him off and told him to knock next time. He nodded, and at that moment I heard a sort of static and Bumblebee, Prowl, and Sari all put two fingers to their ear like they were listening to something. As soon as they heard whatever it was, Prowl and Bee transformed and Sari hopped into Bumblebee's car mode. They sped off, leaving me alone with a WTF face.

Sighing, knowing they were off being heroes, I decided to channel surf. Finding what I was looking for, I leaned forward on the couch and watched a live newscast from downtown. The Autobots were getting their butts handed to them by someone...

Megatron... I saw him come into view when the camera bot moved. Bumblebee and Sari were side by side, and she had armored up. I almost forgot, I remember now that she told me she was actually Cybertronian, a techno-organic actually. Megatron had his back to the two, occupied with the others. Evidently Bee forgot that I was linked to Megatron and took aim with his stingers.

_This is gonna hurt..._ I thought and smashed my hand into my injured nose. The pain was astounding, and I saw Megatron flinch just enough to avoid being zapped. The audio was bad, but I saw Ratchet yelling at Bee, probably reminding him that if Megatron got hurt, I did too. And vise versa...

Megatron took aim at Optimus with his main weapon, that cannon attached to his right forearm. I hesitated second, then sunk my teeth into the back of my right hand, not stopping until I tasted blood. Geez, if someone saw me right now and didn't know what I was doing, they'd probably think I was some sort of sadistic emo maniac.

I looked up to see a crescent wound dent itself in the back of Megatron's hand, energon seeping out of it. He apparently had had enough, a creeped-out look on his face, transformed and sped away from the battle.

I got off the couch, a surprising amount of blood coming from my hand, and tried to stop the bleeding with a towel in the bathroom before remembering something. My mom _always_ put one thing in my pack, even if I was only staying over at a friend's for a night...

A mini first aid kit. I went to Sari's room, dug it out of my backpack, and taped and wad of gauze to the back of my hand before going back to the main room just as they were getting back.

They all transformed, and I stuffed my hand into my pocket before anyone could see. I noticed Optimus look at me disapprovingly.

"What? I helped you, I didn't want to see you get hurt." I said, taking my hand out of my pocket. Sari hopped off of Bumblebee's shoulder to the ground, the key she always kept around her neck was glowing slightly.

"Still, there is no reason to harm yourself for our sake." Optimus said, looking at my makeshift band-aid. Suddenly, Sari's key shot out a beam of blue light, and guess where it landed on? Yeah, me.

"Um is that normal?" I said as she walked over to me curiously. "I heard that thing only works with robots..."

"No, I don't know why it's doing this... I think it wants to heal you, though." She said, taking off the key. It transformed into what looked similar to a doctor's needle and she reached for my arm.

"Nuh-uh. I don't do shots. It's just a flesh wound, I'll be fine in a few days." I said, backing away. She shrugged, the key went back to normal and stopped glowing. Weirded out, I moved for the door. I told them I was going for a walk, and left.

The sky to the west was growing black, and I could hear faint rumbles of thunder after a lighting flash or two. Trudging down the sidewalk, I tried to remember directions to the café where I was going to work. Walking a few blocks, I found the café, Espresso Yourself (which is a really dumb name if you ask me) and walked up to the door before I remembered I had left my application back at the plant.

_ Crap!_ I thought. Sighing, I was about to open the door anyway when a lady burst through, crashing into me and sloshing her coffee out of the cup.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! Did I get any on you?" she apologized. I looked myself over, surprisingly coffee-free, and shook my head no. She looked relieved then, went on, and I entered the little café.

Almost immediately I stepped on something, looking down, I saw it was the lady's wallet. Rushing out with it in my hand, I ran and caught up to her, breathlessly giving her the wallet. She immediately looked insanely happy.

"Thank you so much! I needed to call a taxi and then I couldn't find my wallet, I had no idea where I'd dropped it, thanks again! Can I do anything for you, some coffee, ice cream?" Ice cream sounded good, but the sky was getting darker and I shook my head no.

"I need to be getting back, but thank you for the offer." I waved goodbye and walked down the sidewalk back to the plant. Traffic was a bitch, I had to wait to cross at nearly every stoplight, and of course it had to start raining.

It wasn't a nice 'spring shower' either. Noooo, it was more like someone said, "oh I'm going to dump Lake Superior onto Detroit!" Groaning, starting to shiver because I had left my sweater back at the plant, I waited for the light to turn red so I could make it across this last crosswalk.

It finally changed, and I looked both ways to make sure traffic was stopped before starting to hurry across the road.

Headlights filled my peripheral vision, and I turned to see the semi, brakes blown, heading right for me through the pouring rain. Time slowed down, small little changes were noticed by me, like how the rain was blocked by the oncoming truck or how my heart was beating faster by the millisecond...

Blackness and silence, it was a bit peaceful actually...

Rain pelting my skin, waves of pain washing through my broken body.

I realized I was swimming in and out of consciousness, and when I could feel it felt like sledgehammers were constantly pounding me.

I was being carried now, someone larger than a human but very gentle. Pressed against warm metal, a faint thrum reached my ears. Was that what a Sparkbeat sounded like?

I fought my eyes, black fuzzies swirling across my vision and caught a glimpse of black and gold before closing my eyes again.

"...ost there... sta...wake..." I dimly heard a familiar voice say. Rain suddenly stopped hitting my skin and I heard more familiar voices.

"...key...rry.."

"...oesn't have much time..." A felt a smaller pain in my arm, like a needle, and gave in to the darkness.


	5. Chapter 5

I woke with a start to find myself on the couch in the main room. A very worried, bawling little girl threw her arms around me in a ginormous hug. I pulled back, looking around.

"Huh? How did I get here? I remember headlights, and then Prowl..." I murmured. Sari looked at me, wiping tears out of her eyes.

"You got hit by a semi! If it wasn't for my key you'd be dead..." she said, sniffing. I sat up, noticing all the others were looking at me in anticipation. Prowl especially looked like something was bothering him...

Surprisingly, I didn't hurt at all, and yanking off the bandage on my hand, I saw that the bite mark was gone too.

"I don't hurt anymore, even my old injuries are gone!" I said happily and the somber mood brightened a little. "A question though, why did that key work on me? I thought it only worked with machinery."

With that, a light bulb seemed to go on in Ratchet and he motioned me over to the medi-lab. Tapping on a few keys at a control panel, he programmed something and spoke without looking at me.

"Hayli, go lay on that table over there." Ratchet said, waving in the general direction of it. An operating table of sorts sat under what looked like a high tech X-ray machine. Too stunned at the moment to argue, and wanting answers, Bumblebee helped me up and I lay down. "Hold still..." Ratchet said and punched a key, turning to watch.

A thin beam of blue light scanned me from head to toe and back again. Ratchet turned back to the control panel, bringing up a screen and staring at it for a long time, mumbling out loud.

"It all makes sense now... Your eyes changing color, Sari's key working on you, you being able to survive getting hit by a truck..." He was using a tone that I didn't like... I sat up, sitting on the edge of the table now.

"What? I want to know what's going on!" I said. Ratchet looked down at me, solemn.

"Kid... you're turning into one of us."

...

I stared at the X-ray for a long time. Most of me was still human, but parts, like my right arm, a few ribs, and my heart, were mechanical. I was made partly of circuits and wires, along with flesh and blood.

"I think what happened was when you got shocked by the fragment, your heart stopped, prompting the All Spark to give you a Spark of your own. Though to sustain itself, it needed a mechanical body, so it began making one. Hence the key working on you and your partly mechanized body structure." Ratchet explained.

I sat, stunned, my shock turning to despair.

"So how long will the process last? Am I still going to look like me or will I turn entirely robot?" I said quietly.

"It's hard to tell at this point, it could take weeks, a month, a couple years... and to your second question, I don't honestly know" he said.

"Being a robot isn't so bad... we live way longer than a human..." Bulkhead piped up. Sari elbowed him in the foot.

"I'm not going to be able to see my family again, my mom, my sister..." looking up sadly, I frustratedly said, "My sister will be having grandkids and I'll still be pretty much the same?! Everyone I love is going to die before me and I'll still be here, alone!" I knew I was overreacting a bit, but I didn't care. "Isn't there any way to reverse this?" I asked, desperate.

Ratchet shook his head. "Even if I did have the right tools to reverse it, we wouldn't be able to."

"And why not?" I said.

"Because the Spark you have now is what's keeping you alive, if we took that away, I'm certain you would perish." Ratchet said.

I shook my head in disbelief, looking up, I asked Prowl.

"You mind if I borrow your tree for a while, I need to think..." He motioned down the hallway, nodding, and I hopped off the table. I broke into a run and ducked into Prowl's room, not even stopping as I hauled myself into the tree and lay on my back on the first branch I came to.

I didn't know what else to do, so I just let silent tears leak out of the corners of my eyes and fall to the ground below. The gentle breeze picked up again and tickled my face, cooling the tears and making me relax slightly. I sniffed, staring up at the late afternoon clouds as my mind began to drift.

...

I must have dozed off again, because when I woke, it was dusk. I kept my eyes closed though, and heard a soft, low humming noise coming from below me. It sounded kind of like...

When I visited my aunt in Tennessee, she would wake up every morning and 'meditate' making a noise similar to what I was hearing. I opened my eyes and looked down, and saw Prowl sitting cross legged at the base of the tree. He must have been meditating, his optics weren't lit up, which I guess is the equivalent of having your eyes closed, and I already judged the humming to be coming from him. It actually made the room seem more peaceful.

I returned my gaze back to the sky and closed my eyes again. A few moments later, the humming stopped and I looked back down. Prowl tilted his head up slightly, not enough to see me, but his optics lit up again.

"Am I bothering you?" he asked.

"No, I actually like that humming thing you were doing, it helps." I said, turning over so I could see him better.

He looked up more, enough to where he could see me now.

"Helps with what?" he asked.

"I don't know, relaxing, I guess." I said. He nodded and returned to his original position.

"It's a focusing technique that I learned in my cyber-ninja training." Prowl said, his optics still lit up. He still looked like something was nagging at the back of his processor, and I asked him.

"Is something wrong, Prowl?" I dropped from the tree, my feet making a quiet thud. I wondered how long it would be before it sounded like metal...

"No..." he said, looking away from me.

"Don't give me that, I can tell something's wrong." I walked over and dropped into a cross-legged position in front of him, to show him I was willing to listen. Prowl sighed.

"I- I was there, when you were hit. I could have done something, kept you from getting hurt, but it was as if all my servos froze at once. I'm known for my speed and skill, but... I didn't save you..." he said, hanging his head.

"Is that what you're upset about? Don't beat yourself up, there's nothing you could have done. People get hit by cars all the time, and everyone freezes up sometimes. At least you got me back to the plant in time, did you think about that?" I said. He looked a bit better now, and I stood and patted his leg.

"Don't worry about it, put the past behind you, kay?" He smiled and nodded. I yawned suddenly, hiding it behind my hand. "Well, I've had a long and _very_ stressful day, I think I'm gonna turn in early tonight."

Prowl got to his feet, I could hear his joints complain. He must have been sitting there for a while...

"Good night Hayli, see you in the morning." he said.

"Good night, Prowl." I walked down the hall to me and Sari's bedroom, crawled under the covers, and was out like a light.


	6. Chapter 6

"_I don't care, find it! Use the Spark signature to track it down!" Megatron yelled, pounding a keyboard by a one-eyed Decepticon. Another Decepticon, a rogue, was standing back a ways, he had black markings on his face and spikes on his shoulders._

_ "Yes, my liege." the one-eyed con said. Tapping quickly on the keys, he hit a button and a map of Detroit zoomed in, a blue dot pulsing over a location. "There, lord Megatron." he said, pointing._

_ Megatron motioned the rogue forward. "Lockdown, I want you to find that insolent girl and bring her back to me. Do not harm her, believe me, I will know."_

_ Lockdown peered at the screen. "I don't know, I usually don't track down organics, not much of a challenge..."_

_ "If you do, I'll triple the bounty I discussed with you earlier." Megatron said. Lockdown considered it a moment, then shook hands with Megatron._

_ "I'll get her for you, but I'm still a bit curious as to why you'd want an organic. Keeping a pet now?" Lockdown said._

_ "No, the only organics I keep alive are the ones who have use to me. This one-..." he trailed off, then told Lockdown, "our Sparks are fused. Whatever happens to that organic happens to me, and vise versa. The day before yesterday I nearly died, I was informed the organic was struck by a vehicle and almost didn't survive. That is why I need her here, so I can keep an eye on her..."_

_..._

Sari woke me in the morning, a smile at the corner of her mouth.

"You were talking in your sleep. You also might want to look where you are." I frowned, thinking I should still be in her bed. Evidently I've started to sleepwalk, because somehow I was on the floor in Prowl's room. Sari laughed at me. "Prowl was going to take you back to bed but he didn't want to wake you up, so this is where you slept." She cackled, pulling me up from the ground, and shook me a little.

"Come on, sleepyhead, get with the program!" I yawned, then suddenly remembered my odd dream.

"Hey Sari, I think I need to talk to Ratchet. Is he still here?" I asked. She nodded and went with me to the medi-lab where Ratchet was working. He noticed me come in and put down his tools.

"Mornin' Hayli." Ratchet said.

"Good morning to you too. I have a question, actually. I had a weird dream last night, but I get the feeling it wasn't really a dream. I saw Megatron and a one-eyed Decepticon..."

"Shockwave?" Ratchet interrupted. I shrugged and continued.

"They were trying to find a Spark signal, mine, because Megatron was furious that I almost got him killed a couple days ago. He was talking to a rogue Decepticon... Who is Lockdown?" I said. Ratchet flinched after I said that name.

"He's a ruthless bounty hunter, he's technically rogue but sides with the Decepticons. He usually takes out personal upgrades as trophies... and I don't think he's ever not found his quarry..." he said. I facepalmed myself, muttering 'I'm fucked...' I let my hand slide down my face and looked up again.

"One more thing, two, actually. Number one, if I can see what Megatron does when I dream, can he see what I can when he's dreaming?" Ratchet shook his head no, explaining that it was a rare thing for their kind to dream unless A) they had been severely traumatized or B) were put into stasis to recharge for a couple hundred years. I sighed, relieved at this fact, and asked my second question.

"Could you scan me again real quick? I want to see if the machine part of me has been spreading." Ratchet nodded and picked me up, depositing me on the exam table. He programmed the machine and the scanner read my body again. Turning to the screen, I saw him almost do a double take. "Something wrong?" I asked.

"No, but it's spreading at a much faster rate than I thought." Ratchet said, peering at the X-ray.

"How much faster?" I said. He stepped aside.

"See for yourself." I nearly fell off the table when I saw it. Most of the bones in my body were now mechanized, solid and metallic. My torso was a mass of circuits and gears, and what appeared to be wires were spreading to my waist and up my neck.

"Wow... just yesterday it was..." I gaped. Ratchet looked a little shocked himself when he took out the photo from the previous day and compared it to the one on the screen..

"At this rate, your internal structure will be entirely mechanical in a day or two." said Ratchet.

"Great... So what about Lockdown?" I asked. Ratchet shook his head.

"I don't know kid, for right now I'd say just stay in the base and we'll make sure someone's here to look out for ya." he said. I sighed, thanking him and dropping off the table, noting I could hear a slight mechanical whir when I stood up straight again.

Later, just as darkness had fallen, I had finished getting a shower and was toweling off my hair as I walked down the hallway. Sari popped out of nowhere and grabbed my hand, tugging me along.

"Come on!" she said. Sari led me to the living room where Bulkhead and Bumblebee were sitting on the couch, playing a video game.

"Bulk, Bee, plug in two more controllers and let's race!" Sari said, jumping over the back of the couch and motioning me over. I politely shook my head no.

"Why not?" she whined. I shrugged.

"Video games aren't really my thing, not to be a killjoy or anything; I just don't really like them." I said. Bee shrugged.

"Suit yourself; I doubt you could beat me anyway." I smirked.

"Is that a challenge?" I said, my hands on my hips.

"Maybe..." Bumblebee said. He smiled, waving me over, and tossed me a controller. "Here, you can have the fastest car since you're a beginner."

"Hey!" I protested. Let's just say, after about five races, I had continuously gotten my butt whipped by an alien robot and a little girl. In his short time on earth, how in the hell had Bumblebee been able to perfect gaming skills so quickly?! I gave up, tossing my controller on the couch.

"I give, you guys win." I said, smiling. I wondered what Prowl was doing, and left the rest to their game. Standing outside the doorway, I looked in. He didn't seem to be in there, but I knocked on the doorframe in question.

I saw a single leaf detach itself from the inner workings of his tree and drift down through the branches. Grinning, I stepped into the room, walking to the base of the tree and looking up.

"You meant to do that, didn't you?" I asked. Prowl dropped onto the branch closest to the ground.

"Possibly..." he said, leaping off the branch and flipping before landing lightly on the floor.

"What were you doing?" I asked, curious.

"I like to watch the birds, they are very fascinating." Prowl replied.

"You ever try feeding them? Not all the time or they'll rely on you for food, but it's really fun to sit and wait for one to come eat out of your hand. I had a robin in the woods that was brave enough to come to me if I was absolutely still." I said. He shook his head no, and I smiled.

"Gimme a sec." I said, jogging to Sari's room and retrieving a bag of sunflower seeds that my mom had put in my bag as a snack. Returning to Prowl, I scaled his tree, picking my way up through the branches. I propped myself against a limb and looked down, waiting for him. He wasn't on the ground where he was when I climbed up, and I looked around for a second.

"Looking for me?" a voice said, behind and above me. I jumped and whirled to see Prowl leaning against a branch over me, grinning.

"How do you do that so quietly? I mean, I wish I could be that silent..." I said.

"Many stellar-cycles of cyber-ninja training." Prowl replied with a shrug. I opened the bag of seeds and motioned him down. He picked a branch next to me and I dumped some seeds into his hand as well as my own.

"I don't know how confident the birds are around here, but I'm sure they'll eat out of your hand. I do know I won't have to tell you to be quiet or hold still, though." Prowl sat like a statue, seeming not even to acknowledge me. I sat with my back against the trunk of the tree and legs crossed, my upturned palm filled with seeds resting on my leg.

We waited for a while before the birds started to flutter down through the leaves. One or two landed on me, greedily pecking at the seeds, and I flicked my gaze over to Prowl.

Several small birds were perched on his hand and arm, and another, tiny blue bird was chirping indignantly on his knee. He didn't move an inch, but I saw the corner of his mouth twitch up in a smile.

The birds picked up the seeds until there were no more in our hands, searching a bit and finding no more, they all flapped up into the air and left. Prowl watched them go before turning to me.

"That was fascinating." he said.

"Yeah, you could do this again sometime, but just not too often like I said." Prowl nodded, remaining in his sitting position.

"Honestly, I admire your ability to be silent and still, I haven't met an organic yet that has your patience." he said. I shrugged.

"I like to hang out in the woods, mostly in the trees. If you don't be quiet you won't see anything." I said. He nodded again, looking back up through the branches. The few remaining birds took off with a screech, and Prowl got to his feet quickly.

"Something's not right..." he said. I stood too, only to be suddenly jerked off my feet and up into the air with a sort of net tangled around me. I twisted the best I could to see the rogue from my dream; he had my trapped self hanging from his hand.

"Long time no see, Prowl." Lockdown said, sneering.

"Release the girl, now." Prowl said, drawing a ninja star. Lockdown laughed evilly.

"And what are you going to do about it?" he said. Prowl called for backup on his commlink and leaped for Lockdown. The bounty hunter easily dodged him and transformed, trapping me in his vehicle mode as he sped off.


	7. Chapter 7

Lockdown transformed in front of what looked like an abandoned warehouse, dropping me on the ground, he pressed a few buttons on a panel on his forearm and the warehouse disappeared, a hologram that was disguising a ship. He picked me up roughly, hurrying quickly inside, and closed the hatch.

He carried me into what looked similar to an operating room, dropping me on one of the tables before leaving momentarily. I heard him dimly, he was conversing with Megatron, and I caught bits of their conversation.

"Got what you wanted..."

"Wait for my troops..."

"Mind...upgrades?"

"You know...happens to me... I suppose as...don't harm it..." With that, I heard a click, and Lockdown walked back into the room. I had been struggling to free myself, but had only wound up more tangled.

_Damn it._ I thought when Lockdown picked me up. Equipping what looked like a chainsaw; he revved it and sliced through the net a little too close for comfort. The ropes fell, and me along with them. I landed roughly back on the table and Lockdown pressed a button on the side of it.

Straps shot out from the sides of the table and crossed my chest, waist and legs before snapping tight, forcing me to lie flat and prohibiting my movement.

"You're in luck, organic. Megatron has given me permission to take your upgrades, should you have any." Lockdown smirked, revving his chainsaw. My eyes widened and I squirmed.

"You do know whatever you do to me happens to Megatron, right? So if you hurt me..." Lockdown cut me off.

"Kid, I've never really cared for Megatron, just the bounties he sets on my quarry." he stopped his chainsaw momentarily, picking up a small scanner and programming it. He held up the scanner, and a red beam shot out, traveling from my head to my feet.

"You're not going to get any upgrades from me; I'm just a plain old human." I said. Lockdown peered at the screen on the scanner a minute and smirked.

"You're right that I'm not getting any upgrades, but Megatron didn't tell me you were a techno-organic..." he said, not looking up from the screen.

"That's not entirely true..." I tapered off as Lockdown put down the scanner and pressed the button on the side of the table again. The straps retracted and I sat up, but Lockdown quickly grabbed me and walked to what I assumed was the bridge of the ship. He stuck me in a cage, shutting the door and going to the controls of his ship.

He tapped at a keyboard for a second, then hit a key and the ship started to rise in the air, going high above Detroit and he sat back in a chair in front of the controls. Making the ship go in large circles over the city, he contacted Megatron.

"Hey, I'm waiting for you over the city, hurry it up." Lockdown said through a commlink. I heard static, then Megatron's voice came through.

"Do not test me, Lockdown. You already haven't been treating that organic easily." Megatron said, patching out. I studied the bars of my cage, they were meant for someone a lot larger than me, I might have been able to squeeze out. I saw Lockdown occupied with something, and slipped my head through the bars.

_ That's it, left arm, left leg, butt..._ I thought, having to pull myself to get free, but popping out of the cage regardless. I darted quickly to the wall and ducked behind a panel, crawling over the mess of wires, most of my view obstructed by a wall. Coming out from behind a thick cable, I found myself practically right in front of Lockdown.

_ I'm screwed..._ I thought as he shifted his gaze downward, surprise registering on his face. I backed into the wires again, tripped over one, and smashed into something that gave when I hit it. I turned to see a now glowing red button with Cybertronian language written over it.

"SELF DESTRUCT ACTIVATED, ARMED IN 60 SECONDS." I heard a female, mechanical voice come over the speakers, and warning lights were flashing along the ceiling. Lockdown immediately ran to the controls, furiously pounding at the keys.

"I said override, darn it! You stupid piece of scrap metal!" he shouted, pounding the controls with his fist. I saw the hatch at the back of the ship open automatically, and took my chance. Darting from my cover, Lockdown spotted me and equipped a sort of hook-looking thing.

"Oh no you don't!" he said, raising his hand. I dodged as he slammed down his hook, it got wedged in the floor paneling and I sprinted for the exit.

I ran to the opening of the hatch and stopped. Detroit's lights were far below me, and the wind nearly sucked me out of the back of the ship. I backed up slightly, looking over my shoulder in time to see Lockdown free himself and come for me.

"TEN SECONDS TO SELF-DESTRUCT." the voice said.

_ Let's see, jump and go splat in the middle of Detroit, or stay and get impaled and blown up..._ I thought sarcastically. Taking a deep breath I took a step back, then leapt from the ship. After freefalling for a couple seconds, I heard an ear-splitting KA-BOOM and knew Lockdown was probably fried along with his ship.

Just so you know, skydiving isn't all that it's cracked up to be. Especially when you don't have one of those special wind suits, or goggles, or a parachute... Freefalling isn't like 'oh, I'm gonna do these fancy maneuvers and look cool' no, it's more like, 'Oh, I'm speeding for the ground at a gazillion miles an hour and can't control myself, Wheee!'

I, oddly enough, was beginning to be drawn to the city lights below. I decided to become fixed on them. Hey, if I was going out, might as well do it with a picture of beauty in my head. The buildings rushed up to meet me, and I closed my eyes as I fell past a skyscraper, waiting to meet the pavement.

Suddenly, I felt weird, the sensation of falling quickly but gently stopped. I felt something like the feeling you get when your leg or something falls asleep and is on pins and needles, but this was painless. I opened my eyes. I was about a hundred feet off the ground, enveloped in what looked like a pale red cloud of static.

"I gotcha kid, don't worry." I looked up and saw Ratchet on top of a building; he had caught me with his magnets. Ratchet brought me up to the building and set me down, deactivating the magnetism. My whole body was shaking, and my legs felt like Jell-O, but I managed to stay standing.

"Thanks, I really thought I was gonna just be a smear on the sidewalk for the cleaning bots to take care of." I said. Abruptly, I felt a cable wrap around my waist and I was jerked back several feet just as a large, flaming piece of Lockdown's ship crashed where I had been standing. I turned to see Optimus retract the cable into his forearm.

"Are you alright?" he asked. I nodded. "What exactly did you do up there?" he asked, looking up at the small pieces of debris still falling from the sky.

"Hit the self-destruct button." I said, shrugging. Sari gave me a high five.

"I haven't seen many organics that have that kind of courage, well done Hayli." Prowl spoke up. We all made our way down from the roof, and Prowl offered to give me a ride to the plant. I obliged, and he transformed into his motorcycle mode, revving his engine. I hopped on, and he took off with the others. I actually enjoyed the ride back, riding with Prowl meant I could feel the wind in my face and was more exposed to the air, whereas when I usually rode with Sari and Bee I sometimes felt a bit nauseous because of Bumblebee's crazy driving and enclosed vehicle mode.

We pulled into the plant and I hopped off, trying to comb my windblown hair back into submission with my fingers.


	8. Chapter 8

I surprised myself the next morning by waking up before everyone else, I wasn't even tired. Getting out of bed, I stretched, the odd feeling of machinery working under my skin made me shudder momentarily. I stood, smiling as I noted Sari sleeping soundly in her makeshift tire bed. I left quietly, going into the hallway, I noticed a faint blue glow on the wall and thought someone may had left the TV on.

Heading to the living room to turn it off, I saw it was already powered down. Confused, a glint of light caught my eye and I walked to the piece of glass that served as a sort of mirror. Gasping, I looked at myself in the glass.

The glow wasn't the TV, it was my _eyes_. I blinked, not only had my eyes changed color like before, but now they were giving off a faint blue glow. I glanced outside, dawn was just breaking, and I flopped on the couch, waiting for everyone else to wake up.

Sari walked in after a little while, looking surprised at my eyes and the fact I was up before her.

"Morning Hayli. You're up early today, aren't you?" she said.

"I guess I couldn't sleep." I replied, shrugging. We watched the television nearly on mute so we didn't wake anyone, though eventually everyone was up. Prowl filtered in a bit after Sari, followed by Ratchet, Optimus, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee.

"Hayli, have you seen your eyes?" Ratchet said, peering at my face. I nodded.

"I know, they're glowing now." Ratchet took me to the medi-lab and scanned me quickly. He examined the scan and stepped away.

"You, internally, are almost identical to one of us now." he announced, saying it just looked like a few circuits needed to finish forming for the process to be complete. I hopped off the table, my feet still sounding normal, but I noticed the landing didn't reverberate through me quite like it would usually.

Trotting back into the main room where the others were, I wasn't paying attention and tripped over a cable, falling flat on my face. I cursed loudly and got strange looks from the Autobots.

"What? You've heard me curse before, haven't you?" I said, getting up and dusting myself off.

"Yeah, but not in Cybertronian..." Optimus said. "Just a minute..." he said, leaving and coming back with what looked like a ship's log. "Read this, would you?" I took the book and opened it, reading random passages in what I thought was English. I looked up.

"This isn't so hard to read, the word usage is a little weird but..." Bulkhead cut me off.

"That ship log is written entirely in Cybertronian, you were reading it aloud in our language too." he said. Ratchet stepped forward, motioning me to him. I did so, and he used a smaller scanner attached to his arm, the beam scanning my throat up and down.

"Cybertronian is impossible for organics to speak, but because of the All Spark you've developed a voice processor identical to ours. That's how you can talk like this, though how you managed to learn Cybertronian overnight is beyond me." Ratchet said. I waved my hands in front of my face.

"Wait, what? It all sounds and looks like English to me." I said. Bumblebee piped up.

"Don't focus on what we're saying, just listen to the sound" he said, turning to Bulkhead and starting to carry on a conversation in Cybertronian. It sounded nothing at all like any language I'd ever heard, with the words being made with what sounded like varying tones of EMP waves and electricity.

"Wow...I can sound like that?" I said, slack-jawed. Ratchet nodded. Optimus spoke up.

"I was thinking, I suppose it's about time you become part of the team." he said.

"Really?" I said.

"Yes, you've continued to help us in your time here and you managed to destroy Lockdown's ship as well, I'm more than sure that you would be a welcome addition." Optimus replied. "Also, since you're becoming Cybertronian, I think you'd be able to get a commlink installed as well as find some armor. And to be able to protect yourself, I think it would be wise for us to get you armed."

"Will I be able to transform like you guys?" I asked.

"I don't know, my guess would be you'll be able to arm and disarm yourself as well as shift your armor when you aren't in battle, much like Sari." Ratchet said. "I'm going to wait until later today to install your commlink and weapon, until the rest of your circuitry forms."

I dipped my head in agreement, hearing machinery whir in my neck.

...

I hung out with Sari and Bee for the afternoon, playing a game or two; chatting, Sari and I even pranked Bee. Ratchet emerged from the medi-lab at about seven, motioning for me.

"Come on, kid." he said. I got up from the couch, a bit nervous, following him. He picked me up and dropped me on an exam table, turning and picking up a few things.

"Your internal structure should be complete by now; I've just been working on a few things for you. I had to scale your commlink down because you're smaller, and it took some time to modify your armor because of your size difference." Ratchet said, gesturing to a pile of it by the table. It looked similar to Sari's armor, with a few cosmetic changes. My armor was pale blue instead of orange, with black highlights along the chest plate and on the helmet.

"Neat. So...will any of this hurt?" I asked. Ratchet shook his hand in a 'so so' gesture.

"The commlink doesn't, it will automatically merge with your audio processor, but your armor and weapons have to be grafted on, the torch smarts a bit..."

I tried not to make a face, anything remotely having to do with causing me pain made me uncomfortable to think about. Ratchet noticed my unease.

"If you would like I can put you in stasis for that part of your upgrade." he reassured. I nodded yes, and he dropped what looked like a tiny earbud into my hand. "Put that in your ear, it's your commlink." I did what he said, feeling what I could guess was the commlink clicking into place.

"Got it, so how does it work?" I asked. Ratchet motioned for me to put a hand to my ear like I had a Bluetooth or something, and he did the same.

"Like that." I heard him say, out loud and in my head.

"Cool." I said through the commlink. Disconnecting his, he turned to his equipment, picking up what looked sort of like a taser.

"Don't worry, this doesn't hurt. Lie back now, would ya?" he said. I did as I was told, staring up at the ceiling.

"Ready?" Ratchet asked. I nodded and he programmed the small machine in his hand. "Lights out, kid." he said, pressing the thing against my neck. I heard a beep, and a surge of pressure hit my neck along with what felt like a light shock. I relaxed instantly and blacked out.

...

"..id...Kid...You can get up now, we're finished here." I heard Ratchet's voice. I opened my eyes, shaking off my tired feeling, and sat up.

"What do you think?" Ratchet asked, and I looked down at myself. My armor was surprisingly light, and I liked the way it looked. My torso and shoulders were encased in tough, light blue metal, a black strip running along the bottom edge of the metal. The Autobot's symbol was emblazoned on my chest as well. Blue metal pieces protected each of my hips and the side of my thighs. From my knees down, my legs were covered in what looked like a combination of shin guards and boots.

"This looks awesome..." I said. My arms were covered in what looked like a flexible, black sleeve. My legs were as well. My forearms had a metal plate over them and the black sleeves ended to make me look like I was wearing fingerless gloves.

"Try out your weapons." he said, motioning to my hands. "You now have the ability to shoot energy similar to Sari's, and I included a close combat weapon as well." Ratchet replied, handing me a slim but sturdy sword that looked like it was made similarly to Optimus' axe. I took it gingerly, holding it lengthwise in my lap. The sharp edge began glowing with the same light as my eyes.

"Is it supposed to do that?" I asked. Ratchet nodded.

"It's programmed to respond to your Spark signature only, try storing it." he said. I fiddled with it a second and the blade collapsed into the hilt. I looked around for a place to put it, and Ratchet tapped on one of the panels over my hip. A slot opened up, and I put my new weapon in the gap. It latched into place, with the hilt overhanging the top of the panel enough to make it easy to grab. "Whenever you draw it, it will automatically return to its original state until you wish to store it again." Ratchet said. "You may want to talk to Prowl about some combat lessons; I'm not sure how well you can fight."

Nodding, I swung my legs over the table and dropped down with a clank as my feet hit the floor. Ratchet stopped me for a second.

"Experiment with using your blasters, you also have a helmet that will equip the same way your sword does." he said. I walked out into the living room, Ratchet following behind me, and I noticed it had been a few hours. Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Sari were on the couch, watching a scary movie, and Optimus was watching as well. I cleared my throat and everyone turned.

"How do I look?" I asked with a grin, spinning around in a circle once. Sari leapt off the couch and ran to stand in front of me.

"You look great!" she exclaimed, looking me up and down. "Did you get taller?" she asked. I looked down at myself, I hadn't really noticed. Though when Bumblebee came over and stood close to me I noticed I now stood about as tall as he did.

"My armor must have given me a bit of height." I said, shrugging. Optimus stepped forward, smiling.

"It appears you now are truly one of us." he said, nodding to the insignia on my chest.

"Where's Prowl? I want to show him too." I asked right as he walked in.

"Show me what?" I heard him say and I turned. He took in my new appearance and nodded. "The look suits you."

"Um, Ratchet said you might be able to give me some combat lessons?" I said. Prowl half-smiled.

"Of course, but how about tomorrow? You've had a long day, not to mention you just had an upgrade. Give your body some time to adjust, okay?" he said. I agreed, yawning, and shook my head to wake myself up a bit. Ratchet spoke up behind me.

"You might want to go to bed, you're probably gonna be tired from being put into stasis. It's a common aftereffect." I nodded, yawning again, and went to I and Sari's room. I flopped on my bed, giving in to sleep quickly.


	9. Chapter 9

Sari woke me the next morning when she got up, and I sat up. Yawning, I stretched, the machinery inside me groaning. Waking up quickly, I left her room to find Prowl. I found him meditating in his room with his back to the door. Knocking on the doorframe, I got his attention. He turned.

"Good morning Hayli, ready for your training?" he said. I nodded and he led me to a large room at the far side of the plant. Old robotic arms attached to an assembly line sat what looked like uselessly. Prowl stepped forward, pressing a button hanging on a cord from the ceiling. The conveyor belt started up, and the mechanical arms swung crazily, the blunt claws on the ends snapping at the air.

"Lesson one, agility." Prowl said. "You must be able to evade an enemy's attack before you are able to attack on your own. Watch me first, then try to make it to the end of the line without being hit. Observe." He leapt into the air, flipping onto the track and running the opposite way the conveyor was working. Jumping over an arm, he ducked under another before front flipping to avoid being hit. He landed on one hand, sprang off of it, and cleared the last obstacle before landing on his feet at the end. It looked surprisingly like one of my gymnastics routines...

"Your turn, I'm going to turn off the conveyor this time though. I just want to see if you can make it." Prowl said, turning a dial. The belt slowed to a halt, though the arms still waved crazily. I jumped up onto the machine, watching for any sort of pattern to the arms' movement. I noticed certain arms only moved a certain way, giving them a limited range of motion. I took a deep breath, focusing, then darted forward.

I jumped over the first arm as it grabbed for me, then almost didn't duck in time for the next arm. I judged the height on the last obstacles, and leapt, following Prowl's example. I landed on both hands instead of one, but I still launched over the last arm. Deciding to show off a little, I back flipped off the end of the machine, landing on my hands before doing a round-off and standing.

"How was that?" I asked. Prowl looked a bit astonished.

"Very well done, Hayli." he said. "You did almost exactly as I did to get through, but I have a question. How are you able to move like that?" Prowl asked.

I shrugged. "I used to take gymnastics classes, we had to learn to do stuff like flips and balance and that crap." Prowl still looked a bit surprised.

"I think you can move onto the next lesson, you obviously have the agility part of combat down." he said.

"Great, so what's next?" I asked.

"Lesson two, learning to use your weapons. Also before you are able to attack an enemy, you must know how to fully use the weapons you have. I'm going to focus on honing your sword skills first, and then I'll probably have Sari show you how to use your blasters. Draw your sword." Prowl said. I did so, the blade shooting out to its original length. The edge of the sword glowed blue.

"I was taught by example, so I'm going to teach you that way as well. Sorry if you get a few nicks...try to use your sword to block my attack and land a hit on me if you can." he said.

"Wait, what? I don't want to hurt you!" I called as he leapt out of my line of sight.

"I doubt you will, but just don't swing too hard, focus on just landing a touch on me. I'll be doing the same." I heard him say from behind me. I whirled, but he already was gone. I grasped my sword's hilt in both hands, turning as I looked for Prowl.

"You already look promising, you have your weapon in a position where you could easily defend yourself, and you're searching for me without getting distracted." I heard him again, to the side and behind me. I spun again, and this time he remained where he was. He had one of his ninja stars drawn in his hand.

"Now, defend yourself." Prowl said and leaped for me, drawing back his weapon. Instinctively, I raised my sword to protect myself and his weapon clashed with mine.

"Good, keep on your guard, never assume your enemy has given up" Prowl said, jumping back. With a blur, he was out of my sight and behind me again. I whirled, bringing up my sword to block myself just in time. Prowl drew his other star, managing to give me a light scratch on my shoulder before stepping away.

"Also never assume your enemy has revealed his true potential at the beginning of a battle. Again, this time try to land a hit." Prowl attacked again with both his weapons, and I was getting the hang of it enough to where I could at least block his every strike. We clashed again, and this time, I turned my sword, sliding it under the curve of one of his stars and twisted while jerking upward, causing him to drop his weapon. I took the moment of surprise and swung my sword, pulling back when I hit him so I only left a light scratch on his chest plate.

He examined the scratch and smiled. "Excellent. I think you'll just need a little training to learn how to use your blasters and then I see no reason why you can't join us in battle next time." I grinned happily and sheathed my sword.

Sari gave me lessons on how to use my blasters. At first my aim was bit off, but like my sword, I got the hang of it quickly and I was hitting almost every target. I learned how to equip my helmet as well, it looked almost identical to Sari's, but of course mine was light blue, It had a black highlight that ran along the bottom edge and there were two black strips that ran along the top of it. My face mask was black as well.

"Pretty good, work on your aim some more and you'll be frying the bad guys just like me!" Sari said.

…..

**How do you guys like it so far? Good? Please Review!**


	10. Chapter 10

~time skip 1 hr

I walked down the hallway back to the living room, hearing Prowl's voice, I stopped. He and Optimus were in there, talking.

"She shows true potential as a fighter, as well as something else... I've never seen an organic that agile, in fact, were she on Cybertron, I'd recommend cyber-ninja training for her... Did you notice she actually managed to land a hit on me? I wasn't exactly going easy on her either. She also managed to make it to the end of the conveyor." I heard Prowl say. I walked in like I hadn't been listening, and they both turned to me.

"Hayli, I've been hearing you've been doing outstanding in your training. The next time there's a battle, I want you to come with us. We could definitely use another warrior on the field." Optimus said. I nodded.

"Of course, when do you think that will b-..." I was saying, cut off by what I thought was static, then instinctively put a finger to my ear, activating my commlink. Prowl and Optimus did the same.

"Hey guys, we've got a problem uptown. Blitzwing and Lugnut are storming the city; I think they're looking for Hayli. Bumblebee and I won't be able to slow them down for long..." I heard Bulkhead say. Optimus spoke.

"We'll be at your coordinates shortly, do the best you can." he said. Sari came running down the hallway, and Ratchet stepped out of the medi-lab as well. "You can come Hayli, just be careful." Optimus said.

"Autobots, transform and roll out!" he said, transforming into his fire truck mode and speeding out after Sari hopped in. Prowl transformed as well.

"Hop on." he said and I did as I was told. Prowl sped out of the warehouse with Ratchet close behind. I equipped my helmet, keeping the face mask off for the time being. We drew closer to the fight, and I could see two Decepticons blasting away at the city while Bulkhead and Bumblebee were trying to draw their fire and distract them. One Decepticon was a large, bulky type with many optics, though his and the other's were a bright red instead of blue.

The other Con had a shorter, much slimmer appearance, dual cannons mounted on the top of his shoulders. He also had a heavy German accent, and as I watched, his face spun from a bluish, icy looking expression to a red-faced one that was missing his tooth.

"Vhere is the girl, Autobots?! Megatron vill not be happy if ve do not find ze organic!" he said. Prowl pulled up, and I jumped off as he transformed.

"Blitzwing, I suggest you and Lugnut leave." Optimus said, his face mask down. Prowl had his ninja stars drawn, and I noticed the other Autobots had armed themselves already. Blitzwing noticed me on the ground by Prowl.

"Dere's ze organic, I didn't see it before." Blitzwing shouted over to who I assumed was Lugnut, and switched personalities to an expression that looked similar to a jack-o-lantern. "But I see ju now! HI!" he said, laughing insanely. This wasn't going in a direction I liked, and I slammed my face mask down protectively.

"Hey Blitzbrain!" I heard Bumblebee call, and Blitzwing looked over, distracted. I took my chance, blasting him with energy from my hands as the others launched their attack. Blitzwing changed personalities back to his angry expression, whirling towards me.

"Why ju little...!" he said, grabbing for me. I drew my sword right as he did and slashed at his hand, leaving a deep gash.

"OW!" Blitzwing yelled, pulling back and examining his hand quickly. Prowl and Sari were at my side quickly, adding their own attacks. I saw Ratchet, Optimus and Bulkhead fighting Lugnut, and after searching a moment I located Bumblebee out cold on the ground a few yards behind them. Blitzwing switched to his icy personality, aiming his cannons at us. I dodged the shot he fired at me, the ground where I was standing was instantly covered in ice.

Optimus took a jarring blow from Lugnut and staggered back, seeing this, I darted forward past Blitzwing, managing to slice his leg as I ran past. I glanced over my shoulder with satisfaction to see him hopping on one leg as energon seeped out of the cut. I ran quickly to stand near Ratchet, sizing up my new foe. Lugnut glared down at me with his main optic. Then he started ranting about the 'great and mighty Lord Megatron'.

"You foolish organic! How dare you cause pain to my magnificent master! You almost took him offline with you!" I ignored him, judging distance, and gauged I could make it...

"Bulkhead, give me a boost will ya?" I said quickly, leaping onto his hand. Bulkhead launched me into the air, and I angled myself, twisting with a flip for a better angle, and landed on Lugnut's shoulder. He grabbed for me, but I shifted my sword in my hands, bringing it down hard and stabbing it into the front of his shoulder. I jumped, holding onto my sword, and my weight pulled my sword down through his armor, leaving a gaping slice over his chest plate.

I yanked out my weapon and landed lightly on the ground, backing towards the Autobots. Getting a bad feeling, I whirled just in time to see Blitzwing with his icy personality. He blasted the Autobots, freezing them in place from about their chests down.

"Enough!" Blitzwing said, stepping towards me.

I saw behind him that Prowl and Sari were frozen also. Ratchet shouted at me while they struggled to break free.

"Run, kid!" he said. I shifted my grip on my sword and sprinted away from Blitzwing. Unfortunately, I only got a few yards before I was jerked up into the air. I dropped my sword, and over Blitzwing's engines I could hear it clatter against the pavement. Lugnut rose jerkily into the sky, energon dripping from the wound I gave him.

We were about a couple hundred feet in the sky before I could manage to turn my hands outward in Blitzwing's grip. Charging up a huge blast, I fired and Blitzwing instantly dropped me, waving his hand and stopping in the air, switching to his crazy personality.

"Ow! Ze organic blasted me!" he said. I fell through the air, the ground closer than when I fell out of Lockdown's ship, but still far enough away I thought it would be fatal when I hit. I closed my eyes and waited for the impact.

_At least I'm taking a bad guy out of the world with me..._ I thought. I felt myself hit the ground hard, white sparkles flashing across my vision while I had the feeling of having the wind knocked out of me. Groaning, I put a hand to my head where it had hit the ground.

"Hayli?! Are you alright?" I heard Optimus say. I looked up to see him and the rest of the Autobots come running, Bumblebee with them. Sari must have used her key to wake him up. I groaned again and sat up with a grimace, noticing I was in a huge crater where I had fallen.

"Oww..." I mumbled, rubbing my head, and saw my armor was cracked in a few places as well. Sari came up next to me with her key, and I shied away. She rolled her eyes and held her key closer, except this time it didn't turn into a needle, it took on a sort of complicated 'T' shape and glowed brightly. To my surprise, a panel opened on my chest, revealing a sort of box with a hole the exact shape of the key. Sari stuck the key in the gap and bright light enveloped me.

When the light faded, my armor looked as good as new and I didn't hurt anymore.

"Thanks. I wish I didn't keep falling out of the sky though..." I said. Sari helped me up and Prowl spoke.

"I believe this is yours..." he said, offering my sword in both hands. I took it gratefully, collapsing it and storing it on my hip. I glanced up in the sky to see Blitzwing and Lugnut arguing. Lugnut hit Blitzwing in the back of the head before transforming and taking off with Blitzwing close behind.

I stepped out of the crater I had made, keeping my eyes on the sky.

"Did they give up?" I asked.

"It appears for the time being they have, but I doubt they'll stop trying to find you." Optimus said. "One thing is certain though, you are definitely a fierce opponent on the battlefield."

I shook my head modestly. "Without you guys here, they would have just grabbed me. Besides, I just managed to give them a few scratches." I said. Bee spoke up.

"A few scratches? Are you kidding? I saw what you did to those Decepticons, Blitzwing had a slash on his hand and his leg was pouring energon like a hose! And Lugnut, ha! I saw that giant gash over his chest, awesome!" he said. I dipped my head with a small smile. There were congratulations for me all around for me surviving my first real fight.

I rode back to the plant with Optimus, chatting with him.

"That big one, what was his name...Lugnut? My god he was annoying! Does he always rave about Megatron?" I said.

Optimus chuckled. "Yeah, most of the time. Hayli, you've proven yourself a true Autobot at heart, er, Spark. The way you went unwaveringly into the fight shows you are willing to protect anyone you care about." he said. I dipped my head in modesty; I always got embarrassed when someone congratulated me for anything. Many times at my gymnastics exhibitions, I would hardly even look at the judges when I got a gold medal. And though I don't like to brag...my coach did say I was the best he had seen in a long time and that he was hoping to enter me in the national competition...


	11. Chapter 11

I decided later I wanted to bring back an old sense of who I was. I was nervous about doing my old gymnastics routine after so long of not practicing, so I only took Prowl to watch. I left him at the doorway of the training room and walked to an open section of the floor. Stepping back to the far corner of the area, I took a deep breath and sprinted halfway across the floor.

Using my momentum, I gathered myself and leaped into the air, doing a double front flip before landing on my hands. Staying in that position, I brought each of my legs down so I was doing a backbend and stood straight. I then ran a step and dropped onto my hands, my motion making it so I repeatedly did a sort of forward facing cartwheel. I jumped at the end, double-back flipped, and landed right in front of Prowl. Smiling, I did the same maneuver backwards until I was back at the far edge of the floor.

_ Big finale...make sure to stick the landing!_ I thought. Sprinting again, I jumped and did a double back-flip with a fast twist, getting my feet down in time to stick the landing.

Prowl looked surprised.

"Wow, Hayli, I've never seen an organic move with such grace." Prowl said.

"Gymnastics, remember? I was actually the best in my class..." I said. He seemed to be contemplating something for a minute, then spoke.

"You know, I told Optimus that were you on Cybertron, I'd strongly recommend cyber-ninja training for you." he said. I ducked my head.

"Yeah, I know. I heard you talking to Optimus earlier." I confessed. He didn't seem upset, so I spoke up again.

"Who taught you how to be a cyber-ninja?" I asked. Prowl's face immediately fell, and he looked sad and frustrated at the same time. I backtracked. "If you don't want to tell me you don't have to, I just wondered."

He shook his head.

"It's fine..." Prowl said, pausing. "My master's name was Yoketron; he trained basically all of the cyber-ninjas in existence to date."

"You're talking about him in past tense...did something happen to him?" I tentatively asked. Prowl winced, then continued.

"Yes. The Decepticons invaded the training facility and demolished it; they were after the protoforms that we were guarding. Many of the cyber-ninjas there were taken offline, though they fought fiercely to protect what we were guarding." Prowl said, his optics vacant like he was having a flashback.

"Master Yoketron sealed himself in the protoforms chamber, keeping the door closed to any invaders. They broke in though, and by the time I got to him he was barely online, stripped of his helmet and upgrades and badly injured. I searched the protoform chamber, and found one that the Decepticons had somehow missed. I transferred Yoketron's Spark to the protoform, but he told me I shouldn't have given up something from the future to save something from the past, and then he willed his Spark to go out." Prowl said.

I suddenly felt bad for bringing it up.

"I-I'm sorry Prowl... I shouldn't have asked." I said. He waved me off.

"It's alright, I've tried to put the past behind me." Prowl said. I gave him a faint smile, which he returned.

...

The Autobots had gone out, along with Sari, leaving me alone, so I decided to go for a little walk.

"Hey Optimus, I'm going out for a little while." I said over my commlink.

"Alright, just watch your back." Optimus said, patching out. I left the base, it was incredibly bright and sunny outside, and I smiled. The light glinted off of my armor as well.

I took my time strolling through Detroit, sticking to the sidewalks and making extra-sure there were no trucks coming when I crossed the road. I got a few stares, and I heard quiet bits of conversation about me.

"Who is that?"

"Looks like that girl..."

"Is she an Autobot?" I kind of liked the attention, but didn't stop moving. Stopping on a corner, I looked both ways when the light turned red, about to step off the curb when I saw something.

A pale blue car, looking like it was built for racing, was streaking for the intersection so fast that a black and light blue blur trailed behind it. I thought they were going to slam into oncoming traffic, but somehow the car came to a stop by the sidewalk right in front of me.

I took a step back, doing a double-take when the car transformed into a bot. He was taller than me, but slim, and obviously built for speed. He stepped towards me, pulling out what looked like a sort of badge. I noticed the Autobot's symbol on his chest, but it was a bit different, looking almost as if the symbol had wings. When the bot started talking, I was a bit overwhelmed, though I understood what he was saying.

"Thename'sBlurr.I'manEliteGuardintellegenceage ntfromCybertron, ' 'vefoundyou,soweneedtoreturntothecoordin atesIrelayedtoCybertronianCo mmand. Gotthatsofar?" Blurr said.

"Your name definitely fits... yeah, I heard what you said. Why are you looking for me exactly and where do we need to go?" I said.

"TheEliteGuardrecievedintelof anewAutobotthatwascurrentlyp resentonearth, sotheydispatchedmetolocatesa idAutobotandbringthembacktoC ybertronforquestioningandfur thertraining. WeneedtoreturntotheAutobot'sbaseassoonaspossiblebecause theEliteGuardwillbeheremomen tarilytoescortyoubacktoCyber tron" Blurr explained, grabbing me and transforming, and speeding off at warp drive. We were at the base in about 10 seconds, which was good because much longer and I was probably going to be sick. Blurr activated his commlink, but I couldn't hear what the people on the other end were saying because mine must have been on a different frequency.

"EliteGuard, IhavelocatedthesaidAutobotbu tshe'sactuallymoreofatechno-organic, requestingtransportbacktoCyb ertron." Blurr said. I activated my own commlink, talking to them all at once.

"Um, hey guys? There's another Autobot with me, he says his name is Blurr and he's part of the Elite guard. They want to take me back to Cybertron...what do I do?" I said. Bee spoke up.

"Zippy is back?" I heard him say. Blurr must have overheard him because he turned. Changing the frequency on his commlink, he shouted at Bumblebee.

"MynameisnotZippy!" Blurr said. Optimus spoke up.

"Stay where you are, Prowl is closest to your position, he'll be there soon." I heard him disconnect and I did the same. Right then, a ship materialized and descended into the open courtyard in front of the base. I heard Prowl speed up in his vehicle mode before transforming and coming to stand partly in front of me. He nodded to Blurr in greeting and the ship touched down.

A ramp came down from the ship and a hatch opened as a handful of what I assumed were Elite Guard members walked out. A white Autobot with a visor was first, and I saw Prowl lift his head in recognition. The other Autobot did the same, and grinned.

"Hey Prowl, it's been a while, man. How you been?" the white bot said.

"Nice to see you again, Jazz. How's it been with training the new cyber-ninjas?" Prowl said. Jazz shrugged.

"I'm not anywhere near the teacher that master Yoketron was, but I'm managing. Warpath has been helping as well." Jazz replied. I looked up and saw a navy blue Autobot with what had to be the biggest chin in existence, and he had a smug expression on his face like he was some high-and-mighty king or something. Prowl saw him as well and whispered to Jazz.

"Did you_ have_ to bring Sentinel along? You know he doesn't like organics..." Prowl mumbled. Next out were two small Autobots who I assumed were twins. Actually, they weren't much bigger than I was, though they were taller. One was blue and the other was white and orange. The blue one had a visor like Jazz and the white and orange one had goggles strapped to his helmet. I also noticed the wings on their backs, I guessed they could fly, but I had been told that Autobots weren't capable of flight.

"Look brother, it is Prowl, and there must be the new Autobot we are recruiting." The white and orange one said with a Russian accent, running with his twin over to us.

"Uh, hi, who are you two?" I asked.

"Jetfire." said the orange and white twin.

"Jetstorm, he and I are twins; we make tag team to fight the bad bots. Isn't that right, brother?" said the blue one.

"Brother, should we show the techno-organic?" Jetfire said. Jetstorm nodded, and they both took off into the sky. Simultaneously, they transformed, each of them becoming half of a larger bot. They linked together and dropped to the ground, both of them speaking at the same time.

"See, this is tag team." they said.

"Jetfire, Jetstorm, fall in!" a new voice said.

"Yes, Ultra Magnus sir!" they said at the same time, detaching from each other and returning to their original forms before standing at attention and saluting a larger, blue and white bot that was standing at the base of the ramp. He turned to me, and I got the feeling he was someone of great authority.

"You must be the new Autobot we've been getting intel of. I guess you _are_ a bit more of a techno-organic... no matter, we have orders to bring you back to Cybertron, so let's go." Ultra Magnus said. Prowl stepped forward.

"Ultra Magnus sir, may I be granted permission to accompany Hayli to Cybertron for protection reasons?" he said.

"Who is Hayli? Oh, the techno-organic... I suppose you can come along, Prowl." Ultra Magnus said. Prowl dipped his head in thanks and laid a hand on my back, guiding me into the ship and pulling me aside from the doorway. He looked at me reassuringly as the hatch hissed shut after everyone was on board again.


	12. Chapter 12

"So Prowl, how did you meet this organic again?" Jazz questioned while we were all standing in the main part of the ship.

"She found Optimus unconscious during a battle with Megatron and tried to save him. Then she found the All Spark fragment Optimus had lost and when Megatron tried to get it back it fused their Sparks and gave Hayli a Spark of her own. Hence her Cybertronian structure and the fact that the Decepticons want her so badly. Have I told you she managed to fight off Blitzwing and Lugnut?" Prowl said.

"She did? Crazy..." Jazz replied, looking down at me.

"There's something else...if Hayli consents to it, I'd like you to give her some training as a cyber-ninja. Actually, most of what she would need to learn is just the processor over matter training." Prowl said.

I looked up at him, eyes wide.

"You're serious?" I gaped.

"Very rarely am I not." Prowl said with a faint grin. Jetfire looked up from the controls and called back at us.

"We are entering Cybertron's atmosphere now, prepare for landing." The ship landed on the ground and Prowl again guided me out of the ship. Surprisingly, I could breathe, and it appeared that we were in a city of some sort. I glanced around quickly, taking in my surroundings and Ultra Magnus motioned for me to follow.

"This way, the council wishes to speak with you" he said. I walked warily behind him, the lights along the streets and later in the hallways reflecting off of my polished armor. Ultra Magnus led me to a small platform and when I turned around to ask him what was going on, he wasn't there, no one was.

Nervously I faced the council, most of them looked like old bots, and they definitely seemed to be high in command. I heard one of them say to another,

"What is this? I thought we were speaking with a new Autobot..." I realized that he had spoken in Cybertronian, so I spoke up and surprised them all by speaking in their language.

"Excuse me? My name is Hayli, I'm the one who's Spark is fused with Megatron's." A collective gasp went throughout the room.

I was asked the typical questions 'where are you from,' 'how did this happen,' and about every other off the wall question that the council could think of. A few hours later, I was allowed to leave. The council granted me full rights as an Autobot, (much to Sentinel's dismay,) and said I would have free access to come to Cybertron if need be. Also, on Prowl's recommendation, I was given permission to train as a cyber-ninja.

...

"This place brings back memories..." Prowl said, gazing at the ninja training facility. I stood between Jazz and Prowl, and Jazz motioned me forward.

"Come on in, we don't bite, girl." he said. I walked forward as he opened the door and followed him inside, Prowl walking behind me. Jazz gave me a tour of the place, showing me the bunks, old protoform room that had now been turned into a simulated combat arena, and he stopped in a larger, mostly empty room.

"Okay girl, show me watcha' got." Jazz said. I must have looked confused, because Prowl spoke up behind me.

"Why don't you do what you showed me back at the plant? I'm sure he'll be impressed." Prowl said and I nodded. I motioned for them to stay where they were and walked to the far corner of the room. I did my gymnastics routine that I demonstrated for Prowl, adding a few small moves to fill in the gaps. I finished and looked up at Jazz.

He glanced at me, then back at Prowl.

"How did you learn how to move like that, that was crazy...?" Jazz said. I explained about my gymnastics class and he seemed fascinated.

"Try sparring with her, Jazz." Prowl said. I looked at him like WTF?

"Alright dawg, let's go!" Jazz said, drawing what looked like two pairs of nunchakus. I barely had time to draw my sword before he jumped at me. He swung both his weapons at me and I blocked the solid part of his nunchakus, careful not to get my sword caught in the rope that bound the two parts of his weapon together. Jazz noticed this and grinned, swinging his weapon so that one end wrapped around the blade of my sword and I couldn't get it free.

Jazz drew back with his other weapon, and I noticed he was pulling backward against my sword. I jumped forward right as he swung, releasing the pressure on my sword and dodging his blow. Quickly, I wrenched my sword away and he lost his grip on his weapon, the rope still wrapped around my blade. I whirled, not slashing at him, but I poked my sword right under his chest plate and he stepped back, hands raised and smiling.

"Well done, one thing though..." Jazz said, turning to Prowl.

"Do you think she's capable of learning processor over matter?" Jazz asked him. Prowl nodded.

"I'm unsure of how quickly she'll catch on, but she has the ability to remain still for extended periods of time and she was getting increasingly better at staying silent when moving through the base." he replied.

Jazz took me to a smaller, dim room, motioning Prowl to stay outside. He shut the door and turned to me.

"This room is soundproof; it helps the newer recruits such as you to focus." he said. "Now, try doing what I do." Jazz said, folding his legs and sitting cross-legged on the floor. I copied him and sat next to him.

"You see that little sphere of metal in the middle of the room? I want you to make it move." Jazz said. I looked at him like he was a bit off his rocker.

"With what? The Force?" I asked.

"No idea what that is...but no, you use your mind. Watch me." he said, looking at me before turning his gaze to the small sphere. Jazz started to make a low humming noise, and I looked briefly at him before looking back at the sphere. It started to glow a hazy blue, and rose slowly until it was hovering about a yard off the floor.

"Try it, I don't expect you to get it on your first try, but just focus and reach out with your mind girl. Try to imagine the energy from your body lifting the sphere, or at least pushing it a little." Jazz said, returning the metal object to its original position.

I nodded, taking a deep breath, and closed my eyes, imagining the sphere in its spot on the floor.

"Try humming, it generally helps you focus" Jazz said quietly. I did, humming low and quietly as I tried to imagine reaching out with my mind and rolling the ball. I got an odd feeling, as though something was pressing against my brain, er, processor rather, and I tried to focus on moving the ball. Finally I started getting a major headache and I cut off my humming and opened my eyes, looking up at Jazz.

"Sorry..." I said. He looked at me,

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I've got a major headache, sorry, I can't..." I said, ducking my head. Jazz got my attention, and I looked up at him.

"You moved it." he said, grinning, and pointed to the center of the room. I turned my gaze, and I saw the sphere had moved a couple inches from its original spot. I gaped at it and Jazz got to his feet. He helped me up, and I felt my joints complain.

"How long have we been in here?" I asked.

"An hour or so, why?" Jazz said. I shook my head.

"It only seems like it was five minutes..." I said. Jazz opened the door and we stepped out. Prowl was sitting in the middle of the training room, meditating. He turned when we walked in and got up.

"How did she do?" Prowl asked. I answered before Jazz.

"I moved it! I didn't think I did but I made that little sphere move!" I said excitedly. Jazz looked at Prowl.

"How she managed to do it on her first try I have no idea, but I think you guys can go back home. Keep giving her practice in processor over matter, maybe the next time you come she can take the cyber-ninja exam and get certified. I don't think there's much I can do here that you wouldn't be able to teach her on earth, so go on, I'm sure your friends are missing you." Jazz said. He fist-bumped me as I left, congratulating me.

I rode with Prowl back to the city and he arranged a space bridge transport back to earth. A pulsing blue portal opened up after a femme bot programmed something into a control panel and Prowl stepped through. I took a deep breath and followed.


	13. Chapter 13

Sari and Bulkhead met us on the other side of the space bridge, which by the way I never wanted to use again. I totally lost my sense of balance and direction when I went through, and I had the feeling in my stomach like I had just reached the top of a roller coaster and started to rush down.

"Hey guys." Bulkhead said. I regained my equilibrium and rode back with Prowl to the plant.

...

"Try again, I know it's difficult to block out the noise, just focus on moving that rock." Prowl said as I once again failed to move a small stone. I sat frustratedly on the floor in his room, I had repeatedly been causing the stone to glow, but I couldn't move it. Maybe if Sari and Bumblebee would pipe down...

"Alright, I just wish Sari and the rest of them could be a bit quieter..." I mumbled. Prowl left for a moment, I heard him talking before he came back in.

"You should be able to focus now. They all went out, well, all but Ratchet. He's on the other side of the plant; you shouldn't be able to hear him." Prowl said.

"Where exactly did they go?" I asked.

"Sari said something about a recon mission at some location called 'Cedar Point'." he said. I shook my head and started laughing.

"Really? Pfft, Cedar Point is an amusement park in Ohio; humans go there to ride roller coasters and stuff. You know, have fun?" I said, smiling. Prowl looked confused, shaking it off, his 'teacher' mode kicked in again.

"Now, focus. If you can move that rock we'll go take a break." Prowl said, motioning to the stone on the floor.

"What if I can't?" I said, looking up at him.

"I said focus!" he said, knocking me on the head lightly.

"Oww..." I complained before settling into a cross-legged position again. Sighing, I closed my eyes and hummed slightly, trying to move the rock again. I reached out, concentrating, and got the relieving feeling of something pressing on my head again. I focused, imagining picking up the rock and holding it in the air. I cracked open my eye and saw the stone hovering a few inches off the floor. My concentration broke and the rock fell, hitting the ground with a thud.

"I think that's enough for today, good job." Prowl said, helping me up.

"Ugh, is there any way to do this without getting a bad processor ache?" I said and Prowl grinned.

"It's just because you're new to the technique. Though even my processor hurts if I try to move something too large or have been meditating too long." Prowl said, turning to leave.

I stretched, my limbs creaking, and followed Prowl back into the living room. Prowl flicked on the TV just as the bay door at the side of the room smashed open. I assumed it was Bulkhead being clumsy as usual, but I was wrong.

"Greetings, Autobots." an unfamiliar voice said. A tall bot stepped through the dust, smirking.

"Holy shit! It's a Decepticon!" I said, scrambling away and drawing my sword when I saw the insignia on his wings.

"Don't insult me organic, I am no longer affiliated with that miserable scrapheap, Megatron." the strange bot said. Prowl was at my side quickly, and Ratchet hurried out of the medi-lab at the noise.

"Starscream?! What in Spark's sake are you doing here?" Ratchet said, arming himself.

"Don't bother, Autobot. I'm here for the techno-organic, I've heard she and Megatron's Sparks are fused, which means if I take the pathetic organic offline, I take Megatron offline as well..." Starscream said. Before any of us could move, Starscream armed his energy cannon and fired a shot right at me. I didn't have time to move, and the shot hit me square in my chest.

I was blown backward and hit the concrete hard, I could tell I was hurt, but I didn't know how badly. Deciding not to asses the damage at the moment, I used my sword as a crutch to get myself into a standing position, leaning heavily on it as I shakily raised my hand to blast Starscream.

"You're still alive? I doubt for long... Well, my work here is done, see you later Autobots!" I fired right as he ducked out of the plant, my shot blasting a scorch mark into the far wall instead of into Starscream. I dropped to one knee, looking down at my wound for the first time.

It was bad... My entire chest plate was basically a charred mess, I could see right into my internal circuitry and there were sparks popping out of the wiring as well. On top of that I was leaking energon like a broken faucet. I tried to joke as Ratchet knelt, his expression solemn.

"Bummer... I really wish I didn't keep getting hurt..." I said, suddenly getting dizzy and losing my balance. I sat back on the concrete heavily, shaking my head to try to get the dizziness to go away.

"Shut up and let me look kid." Ratchet said. I did as he said, Prowl coming to stand behind him. I grimaced at a sudden pain on top of the burn already in my chest and I felt something inside of me short out as a large spark cracked out of my circuitry.

"Is she going to be okay?" Prowl urged. I was having some issues staying focused, but oddly enough my wound didn't hurt that much. Ratchet frowned.

"I don't know..." he flashed a light in my eyes and I blinked repeatedly. "She's in shock, that's probably why she's still conscious and talking. Get her up, hurry, but for Spark's sake be careful!" Ratchet said, going quickly to the medi-lab. I heard him mumbling as he programmed a scanner and gathered his tools.

"Of course, the one time that Sari's not around to use her key..." Prowl knelt by me, starting to pick me up.

"I can still walk, I think..." I mumbled. I knew I was hurt badly, but my mind was still clear. I was having issues seeing, but I didn't feel that bad. Prowl shook his head and picked me up gently. I could see energon leaking out of my chest plate and running down Prowl's, but I realized I really must be in shock when Prowl shifted his hold and I caught a glimpse of truly how charred my internal structure was.

Prowl laid me on the operating table and stepped back, allowing Ratchet to work. Ratchet leaned over me, shaking his head at the damage. He used the scanner and looked at the screen before setting it down, shaking his head again.

"What's wrong?" Prowl asked. I looked over at Ratchet.

"Yeah, what is wrong? I really don't feel that bad..." I said and Ratchet glared at me.

"I told you to be quiet, and the only reason you aren't feeling anything is because you're deeply in shock!" he said, then quieter, to Prowl. "I'll do the best I can, but she's going to be lucky... her circuits are almost completely fried, I'm surprised she can still function, and she's lost a lot of energon already. I don't know, Prowl..."

"If anyone can repair her, it's you, Ratchet." Ratchet nodded, sighed, and turned back to me.


	14. Chapter 14

Ratchet equipped a scope over his eye and programmed something on a panel on his forearm. What I assumed was my Sparkbeat was then projected across the screen on his chest. Just my luck, I started coming out of shock and a deep pain tore through my chest. I bit my lip as I felt things start to power down inside of me and I saw my Sparkbeat get weaker and slower.

"No, come on kid, stay with me...!" Ratchet said. He aligned a few wires in my chest and quickly tried to salvage what was left of my circuitry, but I saw my Sparkbeat grow even weaker and my sight dimmed. Ratchet pulled out what looked like a pair of jumper cables and I winced slightly as he shocked me. I didn't feel him do it again and my world went dark.

...

I opened my eyes slowly, finding where I was incredibly bright. I adjusted to the light and saw that I was fully human again, though I couldn't feel my heart beating. I saw nothing except an endless, pure white landscape, I turned around and jumped because there was a bot standing right behind me. Actually, he was floating more than anything.

He appeared to have a white and gold coloring, though he gave off a faint blue glow. He was also semi-transparent, like a ghost. I recognized him as Yoketron, Prowl and Jazz's old master. Wait a second...Yoketron was offline...so was I? I was about to speak when Yoketron did instead.

"Hello young one. I trust you know who I am?" he said.

"Yeah...wait, am I...dead?" I asked, freaking out a little. Yoketron grinned.

"No child, but you are close to it, that is how I am able to talk to you. I must relay this information quickly; you cannot remain long in the realm of the dead. I was sent to tell you that you must embark on a quest, along with your Autobot comrades. You must find the four relics of the original Primes before Megatron does. He plans on using them to wake his deceased followers and attempting to reverse the Spark Fusion you share with him. Should he succeed in the latter, I fear for your life, as he will most certainly come for you and destroy you for the strife you have caused him. Go now, young one, and continue your training as a cyber-ninja as well. Prowl is one of the greatest pupils I have ever trained, I'm certain he will not fail in training you." Yoketron said, fading away and leaving me thinking WTF?!

I got the sudden feeling that something was dragging me away, and with a start I realized I was back in my old body. My chest ached and I groaned, opening my eyes to fuzzily see Prowl, Ratchet, Bumblebee, Optimus and Bulkhead as well as Sari who was standing right next to me. They all looked relieved, and I noticed my chest had a bandage over the gaping hole in it.

"What happened?" I asked. Sari squealed and hugged me, and I gasped and had to push her away. "Easy! That still hurts a bit... wait, didn't you use your key on me?" I asked. She shook her head.

"For some reason, no, it wouldn't work. Ratchet managed to put you back together, though you'll have to wait for the hole in your armor to heal." Sari said. She stepped away and hopped off the table. I tried to sit up, but Ratchet stopped me.

"Easy kid, I want to you rest for a little while. You were and still are damaged extensively, I almost lost you a couple times." he said. I remembered my odd vision at once and tried to sit up again, but Ratchet pushed me back.

"Uh...I have something to tell you, actually. After I blacked out, I woke up in some sort of really bright, white place. There was no one there, but when I turned around there was a bot behind me. He was almost see-through, and he gave off sort of a blue glow. There's something else, it was Yoketron." I said. Prowl looked shocked and spoke up.

"Impossible, he... he's been offline for stellar cycles..." Prowl said. I nodded.

"I know. He said something about a quest. We need to find 'the four relics of the original Primes' before Megatron does. He plans to raise a zombie army and use the relics to reverse the fusion." I said. Optimus looked concerned.

"The relics of the Primes have been scattered throughout the galaxy, their existence is rarely mentioned, let alone their location. I doubt that anyone knows where they are." Optimus said.

"Perhaps Hayli and I could check the Cybertronian archives when she's recovered." Prowl said, looking down at me. "Did Yoketron say anything else?" he asked.

"He said you are one of his greatest students, and that you have been doing a good job training me as well. Yoketron also said that I should continue my training as a full cyber-ninja." Prowl seemed happy with this, laying a hand on my shoulder and nodding.

"As soon as you are able, we'll go to Cybertron again. We can check the archives and I'm going to have you take the cyber-ninja exam as well." he said, stepping away as Ratchet waved them out.

"Alright, alright, let the kid rest. Go on." Ratchet said and turned back to me. "You're really tough kid, and a bit lucky. I had to replace and rewire most of your circuits. Starscream didn't leave me much to work with, and had you been standing a bit closer, he probably would have destroyed your Spark and taken you offline instantly. Even so, I still have work to do, most of what I could do at the moment was patching the wiring and getting you stable..." he said, starting to take off the bandage on my chest.

I grimaced and looked away, not wanting to see my wound again. Ratchet equipped the scope over his eye again and used a small laser to painstakingly solder my wiring back to its original state. I winced once or twice and Ratchet looked at me.

"Quit moving kid or I'll put you in stasis!" he said. I looked at him sheepishly and grimaced when the laser hit me again.

"Sorry, it stings a bit..." I said. Ratchet looked a bit sympathetic, and equipped what looked like a small generator on his arm. He programmed it and aimed it at my chest, firing about three times. A crackling yellow bolt hit my wound and instantly I couldn't feel it anymore. Ratchet de-equipped the generator and started welding me back together again.

"What was that?" I asked. Ratchet answered without looking at me.

"EMP generator, it shuts down certain systems so you won't feel anything for a while."

"Oh, okay... so, how long until I can go with Prowl?" I asked.

"It depends. I need to finish putting you back together, then I'd say about a day or so. Your armor will regenerate, but not very quickly. Just be careful and don't bump anything." Ratchet said. I lay quietly as he repaired me and after about an hour he put away his tools.

"You can go now, just take it easy until the day after tomorrow and then we'll see if you're ready to leave. Ratchet put a bandage over the gap and helped me off the table. I stumbled slightly when I hit the floor, unsteady, but gained my balance quickly and looked up at Ratchet.

"Thanks for saving me." I said. Ratchet looked away like he was embarrassed or something.

"You're welcome...Hayli." he said. I walked away, realizing that he actually called me by my name, not 'kid.' Smiling slightly, I walked into the living room where Sari, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead were half-watching the TV. Prowl was sitting cross-legged on the floor. They all turned when I walked in. Sari leaped off the couch, coming to stand in front of me.

"Hey Hayli! Are you okay now?" she asked, eyeing the bandage. I nodded.

"Yeah, Ratchet's the greatest medic ever isn't he? I'll just have a hole there for a while." I said. Sari laughed and hugged me, though carefully. I grinned and gave her a noogie and she laughed. Bumblebee leaned down, peering at the bandage on my chest.

"That looks like it hurt." he said. I looked up at him and made a 'no duh!' face.

"No, it felt like kittens and rainbows. Of course it hurt you glitchhead, Starscream fried me!" I said and laughed. Bee smiled.

"How about a game?" he asked. I was about to decline, but he and Sari both gave me 'the eyes' and I sighed.

"Sure. What were you thinking of?" I said. Sari ran off quickly, returning with a spinner board and a projector like the one that Prowl had in his chest. She flicked the projector on, and what looked sort of like a Twister board appeared on the floor. There were patterned squares of color that were linked together and Sari sat down with the spinner.

"Oh, I think I've played this before, it's fun." I said. Sari nodded.

"If you touch the wrong square the game board will turn red and you'll be out. Okay Bumblebee, let's see if you can beat the cyber-ninja in training!" she said, spinning the spinner.

"Right foot green." Sari called. I noticed Prowl standing in the doorway, watching us. Bumblebee stepped onto a green area near the edge of the board and I did the same. The entire board flashed yellow and disappeared.

"Okay next round. If you don't remember, the rounds get steadily harder, though I've never seen Prowl lose..." she said, glancing at him. "Okay, left hand blue, left foot purple" Sari said. I easily balanced on one foot and touched my hand to a blue square. Bee did the same and the board once again flashed yellow.

"This game usually doesn't last very long, especially because Bee stinks at it." Sari said.

"Hey! I do not!" Bumblebee complained. Sari smirked.

"Beat this then." she said. "Right hand orange, left foot purple, right foot yellow." I noticed that there were only a few orange squares, and they were in the very center of the board. If I stepped on a purple and yellow square trying to get to the center, I still wouldn't be able to reach it.

"No fair! That's impossible!" Bumblebee whined. I studied the board, then stepped back.

"Maybe not..." Taking a deep breath I jumped up and forward, landing on my right hand on the orange square and balancing, I looked up for a purple square and a yellow square. Careful not to fall, I bent my left leg over my head and set it on the purple square, then put my right foot on the yellow one so I was in sort of a one-handed backbend.

"Whoa... cool..." Bumblebee said. The board turned green under me and a little melody chimed from the projector before the board disappeared. I pushed off the ground and stood, noticing that Prowl was grinning in approval.

"Impressive. Why don't you get some rest, we'll want to leave as soon as possible, and I want you to be as fit as possible for your cyber-ninja exam." Prowl said. I nodded, heading to Sari and me's room. Yawning, I realized I was dead tired and I flopped on my back into bed, closing my eyes.


	15. Chapter 15

After two days, Ratchet said I was fit to travel, though I'd have to be careful of the open wound I still had. I left the bandage off, I didn't need it, and Prowl transformed. I climbed on, and he did a wheelie as he took off onto the street.

"You can be as big a show off as Bumblebee, you know that?" I said. I'm sure he would have smiled had he been in robot mode. I thought for a second. "You know what? I wish I had a vehicle mode like you guys, I'm actually almost too big to hitch a ride with any of you."

"I can carry you just fine, but if it really bothers you we can ask Ratchet when we get back. I contacted Cybertron yesterday; the space bridge is programmed to open as soon as we arrive." Prowl said. We drove for a while before pulling up to the space bridge. I hopped off of Prowl and he transformed. The space bridge opened up and I sighed.

"I hate this thing; it makes me feel weird when I go through it." I said. Prowl shrugged, then walked through without looking back. I sighed, bracing myself, and stepped through the portal.

I regained my equilibrium quickly on the other side of the bridge, and saw Prowl, Jazz, and the Jet twins waiting. Jetfire noticed my damaged chest plate and nudged his twin.

"Look brother, she is hurt." Jetfire said.

"Yes brother, we should help her, yes?" Jetstorm said, looking up at me. Jetfire stepped towards me and I waved him off.

"I'm fine, it happened a few days ago. Starscream tried to take me offline to get revenge at Megatron. Turns out I'm tougher than he thought." I said.

"Badness bot try to kill you? Come brother, we make tag team and get him!" Jetstorm said, tugging on his brother.

"Cool it bros, you know you can't go find him anyway." Jazz said. He turned to Prowl. "You think she's ready to kick some tailpipe in the exam?"

"Yes. Though she is still injured, I doubt it will hinder her much." Prowl said, looking down at me. The Jet twins were laughing at something, and I noticed they kept glancing at me.

"What are you laughing at?" I asked, my hand on my hip. They shut up quickly, putting on an 'oh shit' face.

"Uh, nothing, we..." Jetfire stuttered.

"We...um...we have something we need to take care of, right brother?" Jetstorm said. Jetfire nodded quickly and they both transformed and flew away.

"What was that about?" I said, looking at Jazz. He grinned.

"Those two haven't shut up since after you first left. I think they have...what do you call it on earth... oh, a crush. Yeah, I believe they have a crush on you." Jazz said. I looked at him for a second before busting out laughing.

"Wonderful, the last thing I need right now is more complications. Are you sure they weren't just making fun of me?" I said. Jazz laughed.

"No, and I quote, 'brother, do you think that techno-organic was pretty?'" Jazz said, and I laughed even harder at his attempt to mimic a Russian accent. "'Yes brother, she-'" I cut him off.

"Okay, I've heard enough." I said. Prowl nodded.

"We should be getting back to the training center." Prowl said, transforming and revving his engine. Jazz transformed and waited, and I hopped onto Prowl's motorcycle mode.

...

"Begin!" Warpath called and a gong sounded. For the first part of my exam I had to spar with another trainee. Not too hard, except for the fact it was hand to hand and neither of us had weapons. Did I also mention I was blindfolded?

_Crap!_ I thought as I heard the bot charge. I relied on my ears, as well as trying to reach out with my mind. My sense of balance also came in handy when I was trying to dodge his attacks.

I blocked the punches he threw at me and tried to flying kick him, but my foot met his hand. He shoved me away, and I used the momentum to back flip and land on my feet a short distance away. He charged me again, and I met his attack. I blocked a kick that was aimed for my head and knocked aside the rapid punches he threw. I went to throw a punch of my own, and the trainee grabbed my arm.

_Got you now..._ I thought. I spun, grabbing his arm, and flipped him over my head. I heard him hit the floor with a thud and the gong sounded again.

I had to spar again with another trainee, but this time we were armed and I wasn't blindfolded. I drew my sword while the other bot spun a sort of staff in his hands. He sneered, and I could instantly see there was something wrong. This trainee I had been told was unruly, though an excellent fighter...

The gong sounded and we circled each other. I shifted my grip on my sword, wary, and the other bot leaped for me, swinging his staff. I jumped back, and his weapon hit the ground with a boom. I backed away, and he swung at me again. I brought my sword up, blocking him as our weapons clashed. I pulled away, flipping back.

He came at me again, and I clashed my sword with his staff again. Pushing against him, I forced him a step back, quickly sliding my sword under his weapon, I wrenched upwards, throwing him off balance and causing him to almost drop his staff. I took my opportunity and poked my sword's tip into his stomach. The gong sounded again, and the young bot I'd been fighting glared at me.

I had sheathed my sword already, so I wasn't prepared when he whirled his staff and jammed it right through the gap in my armor into the damaged part of my chest. I gasped in pain and stumbled back as Warpath and Jazz disarmed the trainee and dragged him out. Jazz came back, looking angry, and I heard Warpath chewing out the young bot.

"Sorry, there's something not quite right with that one. Can you still finish the test?" Jazz said. I nodded, the pain in my chest already fading, and Jazz motioned me to the old protoform room.

"This is the last part of your test. The door is programmed only to open and close with processor over matter techniques; I want you to shut it." Jazz said.

"Okay..." I said. I held up two fingers in front of me, pressed together like Prowl had shown me, and closed my eyes. I hummed, reaching out and feeling my mind envelop the door. It was harder to manipulate because it was bigger than the things I'd been practicing on, but I felt the pressure against my mind that meant I was moving it. I focused harder, and looked up when the door clanked shut. I grinned happily.

"I did it!" I said, turning to Jazz and Prowl. Jazz smiled.

"Nice. How's it feel to be a cyber-ninja?" Jazz said. I brightened.

"Really? I passed?!" I chirped and Jazz laughed.

"Yeah, you passed." Jazz replied. "Here, take this, it will be your symbol of being a cyber-ninja." He handed me a new sword, it was delicate and curved slightly, but I could tell it was meant for battle. The edge lit up like my other sword, and Cybertronian letters glowed on the hilt.

"Skilled, brave, balanced, warrior..." I read aloud. Prowl nodded.

"It's customized for you, much like your other weapon. It should store the same way as well." Prowl said. I collapsed the blade and latched my new weapon into place.


	16. Chapter 16

"Can I help you?" an older looking, female bot asked when Prowl and I walked into the archives.

"Do you have any records for the location of the four relics of the original Primes?" I said. The sort of librarian looked a bit surprised that I asked.

"It's possible, but I do know one thing from my studies in this subject. All of the relics were relocated to a planet called earth during the war; there may be documents for their positions somewhere. I do believe that there was a sort of prophecy written by a scholar that pertains to the relics; let me see if I can find it." The femme bot said, scurrying off into the rows of shelving. I glanced up at Prowl and he shrugged.

"Convenient that they're all on earth, but we still have no idea where they are." he said. I saw the femme bot come back; holding what appeared to be an electric tablet of some sort.

"This was written a while ago, but it has been well preserved." she said, activating the tablet. The screen came to life with a pale glow, and Cybertronian scrolled down the screen slowly. I read it aloud, surprising the librarian that I knew their language.

"Wake the dead where north ends...turn back time in well-known climb. Steal a soul where land quakes... to find the last a sacrifice you must make. Should you succeed the last is yours, a mighty weapon, a powerful sword. With this blade strike down your foe, do not fear, cause him to lie low." I read, confused. Looking at the librarian, I spoke again.

"Do you think we could get a copy of this?" I asked. She nodded and fished around in her desk for something before plugging in a small device to the document.

"I'll just transfer the info into this and...there you go." she said, handing me a smaller tablet that displayed the record when I touched the screen.

"Thank you for your time." Prowl said, and we left.

...

I rode with Prowl back to the space bridge, where Jazz was waiting for us. He programmed the coordinates for home, and I was about to step through when the Jet twins rocketed through the sky and landed.

"Wait, brother and I have something for you!" Jetstorm said, running up with his twin. Jetfire breathlessly held something out in his hand, it was a Cybertronian symbol attached to a chain.

"Here, we give you this. Is good luck charm, keep you safe, yes?" Jetfire said, dropping the sort of necklace in my hand. The chain was too short to wear it around my neck, but I supposed I could double it up and wear it around my wrist. That is, if I decided to even wear it.

"Uh, thanks guys..." I said. They looked at each other giddily and laughed, transforming and taking off. I looked at Jazz and Prowl, they had been struggling to keep from laughing and now they had cracked up. I laughed too before shaking my head and smiling.

"Actually, it's kind of sweet. Though, the last thing I need right now is a boyfriend, let alone two." They laughed even harder and I elbowed Prowl.

"Oh stop it, come on and let's go home." I said. Prowl was still grinning as he stepped through the portal with me behind him.

I looked closer at the object the Jet twins had given me. I translated the symbol to English, and it said 'protector and guide'. I slipped the chain around my wrist and doubled it so it wouldn't fall off. Prowl transformed and I rode with him back to the base.

...

Everyone was congratulating me up and down for passing the cyber-ninja exam and Sari grabbed my hand when she saw the charm the Jet twins had given me.

"What's this?" she asked, looking at the symbol.

"Uh, the Jet twins gave it to me, they said it was a good luck charm." I said. Sari dropped my hand and started laughing.

"Hayli has a boyfriend! Hayli has a boyfriend! Actually, more like two, that is, unless they 'tag team'" Sari laughed, saying the 'tag team' with a Russian accent.

"I do not! They can crush on me all they want; I'm not going to be any closer than friends to them." I snapped. Sari snorted, and laughed again.

"Then why are you wearing that?" she said. I glanced at my wrist before looking at her.

"Because. I think it's sweet they gave me something so I'm going to wear it to be nice." I said. Suddenly, the key around Sari's neck shot out a beam of blue light and hit my bracelet. Zapping it once, the key returned to normal and the charm glowed momentarily before going back to its original form as well. Sari and I looked at each other.

"That was weird." Sari said. I agreed, shaking it off, and pulled out the tablet that had the prophecy copied on it. Each of us read it, but we were all a bit confused.

"Where north ends sounds like the North Pole, but the others I have no clue." Optimus said. My charm flashed when he said that, and I held it up, peering at it before a light bulb went off in my head.

"I have a theory, this charm means 'guide', and for some reason Sari's key reacted to it. Maybe it's now a link to finding the missing relics. Do you have a world map in here anywhere?" Bumblebee nodded and hurried off, coming back with a giant, folded up paper map. I spread it on the floor, taking my bracelet off and reading the tablet again.

"I would guess what Optimus said about the North Pole is right, my charm lights up when I go over that spot..." I said, brightening as I got an idea.

"A well known climb would probably be a mountain somewhere, anyone have a guess as to which?" I said. Sari spoke up.

"What's that really big one over in Asia...? Mt. Everest? It seems like all mountain climbers want to go there." she said. I nodded and scanned my charm over the map, sure enough; it glowed when I ran it over Mt. Everest's location.

"Good thinking, Sari." I said. "Okay, does anyone know about the 'where land quakes?'" I asked. Everyone seemed stumped for a minute, then Prowl voiced his idea.

"Your guess is as good as mine, but I would say the last relic is somewhere along a fault line. Are there any that you know of?" Prowl said. I tried to think back to my Geography class and shrugged.

"Most of Earth's major fault lines are underwater, but the San Andreas Fault in California is fairly well known." I said. I scanned my charm over the area, and it lit up as I passed the fault line. "I guess that answers the third part, but what about the last bit? It's more straightforward, but it doesn't specify who will sacrifice what or when it will happen." I said. Everyone was clueless, and we decided to deal with that obstacle when we came to it.

Optimus decided to go after the first relic in the North Pole. He took me, Prowl and Bumblebee, having the rest stay at the base. I wrapped my bracelet back around my wrist and hopped into Optimus' vehicle mode.

...

The drive through Canada was pretty, but uneventful. As we neared the Arctic Circle, the roads became steadily worse and the ground was now blanketed in snow. We eventually had to leave the roads and later reached the edge of the ice shelf. It wasn't winter, so there were considerable gaps between the ice floes, but it had been cold all this year and what ice remained was in very large expanses.

There was a very large expanse of open water right at the start, none of us would be jumping across. Optimus turned to Prowl.

"Do you think you and Hayli can make it across?" he asked. Prowl judged the distance, nodded, and stepped back. Jumping up, he pulled me up into the air with him and activated his boosters, flying across the gap and landing on the ice after he set me down.

"I forgot you could fly." I said. Prowl continued forward, talking over his shoulder.

"I can't really fly, my boosters don't enable extended periods of time in the air." Prowl said. We hurried the best we could, and I was starting to get cold. On the large expanses of ice, Prowl would let me hitch a ride.

After picking our way across the ice for a while, my charm started to glow. I took it off, and we followed the signal it was sending out. If the light started to dim, I turned until the charm brightened again until no matter where I turned, the light glowed fiercely. A beam shot out of the Cybertronian symbol and acted like a laser and traction beam at the same time.

The blue beam shot down into the ice, carving out a space before the light brought out a sort of staff, bigger around than my wrist and taller than I stood, it had intricate carvings and runes inscribed into the end. There was a sizable blue crystal inlaid in the carved part of the staff, and when I closed my hand around the relic my charm stopped glowing and I put it back on my wrist. It was a bit too big for me to hold on to, but Prowl took it without complaint.

"That wasn't really hard to find, other than the fact I'm freezing my ass off." I said. Prowl nodded.

"Yes, I'm cold too. I have a feeling though that the others won't be so easily found." he said.

We made our way back to the other two with the relic kept safely from harm. Prowl launched over the last expanse of water and we touched down in front of Bumblebee and Optimus. Prowl held out the staff and Optimus took it carefully.

"We should get back to the base and put this somewhere safe." Optimus said, transforming and keeping the staff inside his vehicle mode. I rode with Prowl this time, but a few hours later a blinding pain struck me in the stomach. Losing my balance, I fell backwards off of Prowl and skidded against the pavement, my armor sparking. I rolled once or twice before coming to a stop and I saw the Autobots immediately slam on the brakes and come back to me.

"What happened?!" Bumblebee said. I grimaced and stood. The paint was scratched on my armor in a few places and my stomach still hurt. Again a sharp pain hit me, this time in my shoulder.

"Ow!" I yelped as the three of them looked at me in dismay and confusion. I suddenly had a 'no duh' moment and facepalmed myself.

"I bet Megatron is fighting somewhere, that's why I fell off of Prowl. It felt like I was blindsided by quarterback." I said. They all looked concerned, and I tried to wave them off. "As long as he doesn't get seriously hurt I'll be fine." I said. Even so, Optimus had me ride with him so I couldn't fall to the pavement.

...

Back at the base, we locked the first relic in a safe and spread the map on the floor again. I scanned my charm over Mt. Everest, but for some reason it didn't light up. Confused, I tried it again and had the same result. My face fell when I realized what had happened.

"The Decepticons must have that relic now, that's why my charm isn't lighting up." I said. Optimus shook his head.

"We'll have to get it back at some point, which means storming the Decepticon's base." Everyone turned a bit solemn, but I tried to lighten the mood.

"That last known relic is somewhere where we know to search, I doubt the Decepticon's even know the prophecy and have been searching for it manually. Why don't we take a little break and try to relax?"

"OOH! I know! We could go cam-..." Sari started to say when Bumblebee cut her off.

"Oh no, I am NOT going back there! No TV, no games, no technology, I don't think so!" Bumblebee said. I laughed at him.

"Spoken like a true city boy, Bumblebee. Are you serious that's why you don't want to go?" I said.

"Yeah, that and the fact that Prowl and I got turned into space barnacle zombies the last time we went camping." Bee said. I looked at Sari like 'what the hell is he talking about' and she shrugged.

"Long story, but let's just say I saved both of their butts." Sari said. I smiled and laughed a little.

Optimus thought it would do us all some good to unwind for a few days, and we all packed up and went to the woods on the outside of town. I couldn't believe that Bulkhead actually had to _drag_ Bumblebee out of the plant and carry him all the way to the woods.

Actually, when we were setting up camp, Bumblebee tried to split but Optimus stopped him.

"Bumblebee, stay here, that's an order." Optimus said. Bumblebee slumped and just sat on the ground where he was. I rolled my eyes at him.

"You hate nature more than my sist..." I said, trailing off at the mention of my family. The realization I'd never be able to see them hit me full force again and I backed away from the camp.

"I-I need to be alone for a little while..." I said, turning and darting into the trees. I vaulted up into a large oak and leapt from tree to tree until I was a ways from camp. I made my way carefully into the top of a huge maple and sat.

...

I had been trying to meditate before giving up and staring at the sunset. The sun had set below the horizon, but the clouds were blazing a fiery orange near it. I watched a deep purple cloud float lazily across the twilight sky that was quickly turning dark.

"Hayli...?" I heard Prowl say and looked around. He was in my tree a few branches down. "Are you alright? You've been gone a while, it was getting dark so I thought I'd come look for you." he said.

I sighed and nodded.

"It's just...I miss my family that's all." I said. Prowl gave me a sympathetic look and motioned for me to jump down. He leaped from the tree and landed lightly on the ground before looking up at me expectantly. I sighed again and started picking my way down. About halfway down, the branch I stepped on snapped just as I let go of the one I had been holding onto for balance.

I expected to hit the dirt humiliatingly, but instead fell into Prowl's arms. I looked up at him and half-smiled.

"Is your job just to catch me when I fall?" I said.

"It appears so, are you okay?" he asked. I nodded, and got a sudden thought before pushing it away quickly.

_No no no, do not develop a crush, do NOT!_ I thought. I felt my face flush and had Prowl put me down. We remained in a bit of awkward silence on the way back to the camp, and when we got there everyone was sitting around a little campfire.

"There you are, finally!" Sari said. "I've been waiting to tell a ghost story!"

"Are-are you sure you want to tell a scary story? What about one that doesn't involve someone getting terrified, namely me!" Bumblebee said.

"Don't be such a scaredy bot, Bumblebee!" Sari reprimanded. With that, she launched into a ghost story that by the end was actually creeping me out, mostly because of the tone of voice she was using.

Ratchet had dozed off during her story and I noticed Optimus nodding as well. Sari saw too, and decided we'd better turn in for the night. Even though I knew the story was fake, I still slept with one hand on my old sword, just in case...


	17. Chapter 17

We stayed in the woods a few more days, but Prowl and I were the ones who did much of anything. I found myself continually glancing at him when we were hiking and mentally slapped myself for it. We broke camp, packing everything mostly into Bulkhead and heading back to the base.

"We should go as soon as possible to retrieve that last relic. 'Steal a soul' doesn't exactly sound like something we want in Decepticon possession." Optimus said. This time, he assigned everyone to come and Sari pumped her fist.

"Yes! Field trip!" she said, hopping into Bumblebee's car mode. Optimus had me ride with Bulkhead, just in case Megatron would happen to get me injured.

...

The drive out west was beautiful, though lengthy. I'd never seen the Rocky Mountains before, so driving through them was amazing. Although, the Great Plains aren't really that great. Just miles and miles of dirt, grass, grass, and guess what? More grass. It's also _completely_ flat. You see a town and think, 'oh we'll be there in like ten minutes' but you just keep driving and driving. I was bored out of my processor during that part of the trip.

I've also never been to California, I found it very beautiful. We drove to the San Andreas Fault and the Autobots all transformed and I unwound the charm from my wrist when it started to glow.

Using the same tactic as I had in the North Pole, we followed the glow until it shone brightly no matter which way I turned. A beam shot out of my charm and destroyed a few feet of dirt and rock before withdrawing a large, circular disk with Cybertronian written all around it. It occurred to me that it was a shield, and set in the middle of it was another shard of the All Spark.

I put my charm around my wrist again and held the shield in my arms. It was way too big and heavy for me to hold for long, and I was about to hand it off to Optimus when I heard what sounded like jets. Looking up, I saw Blitzwing and Lugnut transform and drop out of the sky.

_What was the last relic again? Oh yeah, 'to find the last a sacrifice you must make...' _I thought. Grimly I realized a fact and said what was on my mind quietly.

"It's me, of course it is... the prophecy was directed at me all along..." I mumbled. I shoved the shield into Optimus' hands and strode towards the two Decepticons, ignoring when they tried to call me back. I looked up at Blitzwing, who was wearing his icy personality, and took a deep breath.

"I'll go with you without a fight, just leave the Autobots alone and leave the relic as well." I said. Blitzwing mumbled to Lugnut for a minute before kneeling to my level.

"Ju had better not be lying, ve are ze masters of deception, and ju can't trick us." Blitzwing said.

"I'm dead serious." I said, looking him in the eye. Blitzwing changed to his crazy personality and laughed insanely.

"Vell then let's go!" he cackled. I smiled sadly at the Autobots as Blitzwing grabbed me and transformed, trapping me in his jet mode. The trip to the Decepticon's base took a lot less time flying than it did driving, and Blitzwing transformed and walked into an abandoned mine with Lugnut not far behind.

He set me carefully on a sort of platform and pressed a button, instantly I was in a cylinder surrounded by a sort of green energy. Blitzwing and Lugnut left, probably to find Megatron, and I sat heavily on the floor.

I noticed a sort of heat on my left hip where I kept my old sword, and drawing it, I nearly dropped it when a bright blue light shot out in every direction. I squinted, and when I looked back my sword had changed. The blade was now thicker, and glowed entirely the color of my eyes except for the hilt, which I saw now had a sliver of the All Spark inlaid in it. Sparks crackled from it, and I thought back to the prophecy.

_'Should you succeed the last is yours, a mighty weapon, a powerful sword...'_ I thought. Hearing footsteps, I quickly sheathed the relic and pretended to be depressed as Megatron and Shockwave walked in. Megatron glared into my prison and spoke.

"You miserable organic... If it wouldn't take me offline as well I'd kill you right now. You've nearly died twice since we were fused, now that I've got you, you aren't leaving this chamber until the end of time!" he said.

"Hey, it's not my fault that I got hit by a truck or that Starscream blasted me, be grateful the Autobots saved my life both times." Megatron narrowed his eyes, shaking his head in annoyance, and he left, Shockwave following him. Looking around, I noticed what must have been the 'turn back time' relic in a case surrounded by lasers. It looked like a sort of generator, similar to the other relics it was inscribed with Cybertronian and a sliver of the All Spark was imbedded in it. I heard static in my ear and immediately activated my commlink.

"Hayli, are you alright? We're coming to get you, don't worry." Optimus said. I sent quickly back to him.

"No, don't, I don't want to see you get killed or hurt because of me. The Decepticons have what they want now, they'll stop attacking you. Besides, I think I may have solved another piece of the prophecy. My old sword transformed shortly after I got here, I think it turned into the last relic." I took a deep breath. "I know what I have to do. I'm going to take Megatron offline, that will complete the prophecy and the Decepticons will be in a frenzy not knowing what to do." I said.

"Hayli, that's suicide! You know if Megatron dies you do too!" Prowl spoke over my commlink.

"I know." I said and disconnected my commlink. Knowing the Autobots, they were still stubbornly going to try and rescue me. I sighed, sitting and putting my face in my hands. I ended up meditating in the center of my cell until a loud BOOM announced the Autobot's arrival. Shots were fired by the Decepticons, and the fight moved into the large room where I was being kept.

I stood, unable to escape as the Autobots were hammered on all sides.

"I told you to leave me here! Do you have listening issues or what?!" I called. Megatron was in full battle mode, but my friends couldn't touch him for fear of injuring me. Megatron didn't give a rip; he had his own sword in hand and was swiping mercilessly at the Autobots. Prowl tried to disarm him without causing him harm, but Megatron knocked him backward and sent him flying across the room.

Lucky for me, but bad for Prowl, he landed on the control panel for my cell, smashing it and causing the barrier around me to disappear. Prowl tried to shake off the hit, and I looked up to see almost all the Autobots taking direct hits from Megatron and his followers.

Unsheathing my swords, I ran with the tips dragging across the floor, sparks flying especially from my weapon that was now a relic. Megatron whirled, glaring at me, and the Autobots became occupied with the rest of the Decepticons as we circled each other.

Sizing up my opponent, the last part of the prophecy rang in my mind.

_'With this blade strike down your foe, do not fear; cause him to lie low...'_ I charged Megatron, clashing both of my swords against his. I could immediately tell he was _much_ stronger than me, and as he shoved me back I noticed something with satisfaction. He was unwilling to strike me because he would be injuring himself. I didn't share this fear, and leaped at him again, scoring hit after hit on his armor until we were both cut and streaming energon.

"Why do you fight me, organic?" he said as we clashed again. "You are simply injuring yourself when you damage me." Megatron said and pushed me back. I held firm, though my feet slid on the floor.

"It's called courage, you should try it sometime." I said, gritting my teeth in concentration. Megatron was a much stronger and better fighter than me though, and he shifted his sword so it bent my hand painfully and caused me to drop my cyber ninja sword. He hesitated for a second, then sent me flying across the room and crashing into a wall. Sparks flashed across my vision, but I kept my grip on my relic sword and stood.

I saw the Autobots starting to gain a little leeway in the battle. Lugnut was out cold and I saw Prowl draw back to deliver a heavy blow to Shockwave. I then saw Megatron powering up his arm cannon to fire at Prowl.

Judging distance in a split second, I knew I'd never be able to knock him out of the way in time. Megatron was about to fire, when I called out.

"NO!" I cried. For a second Megatron was distracted. It seemed like I had a lifetime to think about what I was going to do, though it truly was only a moment. I spun my sword, sparks crackling off of it, and positioned the tip directly over my Spark. Prowl's optics met mine and I gave a faint smile before plunging the blade through my chest plate and directly into my Spark.


	18. Chapter 18

It then seemed as if I was floating out of my body, and seeing the whole event from a bystander's eyes. Megatron lurched, falling to the ground the same time I did. The Cons and Autobots seemed to form an instant truce, stopping the fighting and rushing to their respective fallen warriors.

I had fallen backward, and the relic sword was embedded about halfway into my body, with energon seeping out of the wound and the dozens of slashes I had inflicted. Sparks popped off my sword, and Ratchet looked like he was shouting something before my world went dark.

...

I opened my eyes to find myself in the bright place again, and Yoketron was standing in front of me. He bowed and gave a faint smile.

"Very well done, young one. You discovered all of the relics and fought like a true hero. You sacrificed yourself to save your friends, not many people can say that. I am also pleased to see you are a full cyber ninja." Yoketron said.

"Let me guess, I'm actually dead this time." I said. Yoketron gave a bit more serious face.

"You are on the brink, young one, it is your choice whether you return to the living or not." Yoketron said. "Though I have good news for you. Because you used the relic to destroy your Spark, the fusion between you and Megatron has been dissolved. A word of warning, should you return to life, Megatron will not stop until he has extinguished your Spark himself."

"I still want to go back; they'll all miss me too much if I stay." I said with a smile.

"Very well." Yoketron said, starting to fade away. "One more thing, do not deny your feelings for Prowl, if you do it will hinder your mind. I have a feeling he has something to tell you as well..." he said as he disappeared.

I again got the feeling something was dragging me away, but this time the transition back to my body wasn't as smooth. It felt like my spirit had to force its way back inside my body, and at first I couldn't open my eyes. I heard a faint drone, and soon a beep, then another beep.

I forced my eyes open slightly, my sight was blurry and extremely out of focus, but it tried to shake it off. The blurriness subsided, and I could see Prowl, Optimus, Sari, Bumblebee, and Ratchet standing away from me a bit.

"She's back." I heard a female voice say and saw a femme bot step back from where I lay. Everyone looked relieved, sad, and happy at the same time. Prowl, Sari, and Bumblebee stepped up first and I managed a very faint smile. Trying to talk but managing only a quiet whisper, I spoke.

"Hey guys." I croaked. The femme bot looked at me sternly.

"Don't try to talk, you're injured very badly, in fact, we lost you for a while. I thought you'd joined the Realm of All Sparks for sure, but now that you're going to be okay you need to rest." she said. I noticed I was hooked up to all sorts of junk, and I said something one more time before being quiet.

"Where am I?" I asked. Ratchet spoke from next to Optimus at the back of the room.

"You're at a triage facility on Cybertron. After you sacrificed yourself for us, Sari's key wouldn't work again for some reason so we knew your best chance was to transport you here for medical attention. You've been on Spark support since we brought you here, you're incredibly lucky to survive." Ratchet said. I motioned for something to write with since I wasn't supposed to speak. Prowl shook his head and told me to rest.

I was already very tired and sore, but I croaked out a reply.

"Yoketron spoke with me again. He said I had a choice to join the Realm of All Sparks or come back to life; of course I had to come back. No way would I leave you guys. He also said that because I used the relic, I'm not fused with Megatron anymore." I said, leaving off the part about what he said to me about Prowl. The femme bot harshly snapped at me.

"Do you want to recover or not?" she said. I sighed and shut up. Optimus reassured me.

"I'm sure you'll be better in no time, and by the way, all the relics are now in Autobot possession and under lockdown in the council's vault. What you did was incredibly brave Hayli, though maybe a bit extreme. I'm just glad to hear you're going to be okay and aren't linked with Megatron." I nodded, starting to have trouble focusing, and the femme bot started to shoo the Autobots out of the room.

"Go on, she's weak and needs to rest." she said. I saw Prowl glance over his shoulder on the way out and look at me like he didn't want to leave. I didn't dwell on it long, exhausted, and soon fell asleep again.

...

I woke later to find the femme nurse checking my vitals. I also noticed Prowl was sitting on the floor and meditating. Still too weak to do much, but finding my voice was stronger, I turned my head and spoke to him.

"Prowl? What are you doing here?" I asked somewhat hoarsely. He looked up quickly and got to his feet.

"You needed an energon transfusion, I volunteered." Prowl said. I glanced up to see a cylinder of glowing blue energon connected with a tube into my arm. Flicking my gaze back to him, I gave him a look.

"You didn't have to do that..." I said. Prowl nodded.

"It was the least I could do, you saved my life back at the Decepticon's base, and I could stand to part with a little energon to help you." he said. I rolled my eyes, making a face when I thought of something.

_Eww...so does this mean Prowl is a part of me now? Creepy... _I thought.

"Is something wrong?" Prowl asked, seeing my expression. I shook my head as best as I could in answer. The femme nurse adjusted some of the things I was hooked up to and Prowl looked at me before glancing up at the femme.

"Red Alert, do you think I could talk to Hayli for a minute, alone?" Prowl said. Red Alert looked reluctant, then nodded and left the room. Prowl watched her leave, then turned back to me.

"I...have something to tell you, Hayli..." he said.

"Yoketron said you might..." I said with a small smile.

"As soon as I realized what you were going to do, I...I don't know...it was if a mixture of emotions hit me all at once. I didn't know if you were going to make it or not, and frankly, I don't know what I would have done had you gone offline. I would have felt like it was my fault, I suppose, like when you were hit by that truck and I could have saved you..." he said. I cut him off.

"I told you to forget about that, there was nothing you could have done. You couldn't have done anything to stop my actions at the base either. I knew what I had to do, and accepted the consequences. You would have just had to move on and go on living." I said. Prowl looked at me sadly.

"I don't know if I could've. I..." he paused, sighing, before continuing. "I won't deny that I have feelings for you. Since I first found you in the tree in my room, I knew there was something different about you... You've proven yourself a formidable sparring opponent as well as a fierce warrior on the battlefield, and you're one of the greatest bots I've ever known..." he trailed off and facepalmed himself. "For Spark's sake I sound like an idiot..."

I laughed, having to stop though because it hurt too much when I did.

"I was about to say the same thing." I said. When he looked at me like I'd slapped him I backtracked. "No, no, I meant what you were saying about being a great bot and being special...I...I think the same way about you." I said, my face heating up. We broke off the conversation quickly when Red Alert walked back in. I felt my face flush more and decided just to look up at the ceiling.

"I think that's enough activity for today, you should rest. You've also been slated for surgery later today to further repair the damage to your Spark." Red Alert said. She took Prowl out of the room and came back by herself.

"You should rest for a while until I come back." she said, putting a hand on my shoulder before leaving. I wasn't really tired, just weak, so I tried to meditate. It was difficult to block out the noise of the machines around me and the pain in my chest so I ended up waiting until Red Alert came back an hour or so later.

"Okay, I'm going to put you in stasis now, as a warning you'll probably be sore when you wake up." she said, picking up an instrument identical to what Ratchet had used on me before. She pressed it against my neck and I blacked out after the familiar pressure.

...

Red Alert was right about being sore, but I did feel much less weak. Through the following week I was visited a lot, even getting a surprise visit from some of the Elite Guard. I was still too weak to sit up, but I was getting strong enough to carry on conversations easily, and I grinned when Jazz, Blurr, and the Jet twins walked in, Prowl behind them.

"Hey guys." I said. I saw Jetfire nudge Jetstorm when he saw I was wearing their charm. He must have forgotten I spoke Cybertronian, because Jetstorm mumbled to Jetfire.

"Look brother, she is wearing good luck charm we gave her. She must like us!" Jetstorm said in Cybertronian.

"Yes brother!" Jetfire said. Blurr smacked them both upside the head and I laughed. Jazz spoke for me with a smile.

"You two do know that she's fluent in Cybertronian right?" Jazz said. The twins looked at each other with a horrified expression, causing me to laugh again.

"We, uh, we're sorry you heard that." Jetfire said, grabbing his brother by the arm and dragging him out of the room.

"Ah, young love." I said. Everyone cracked up. Looking up at Jazz and Blurr I said, "So why are you guys here?"

"Weweretoldthatyouwerebadlyin juredandnearlywentofflineaft eryousacrificedyourselftosav etheAutobotsaftertheyinvaded theDecepticonbase. Furthermore, weweretoldyouweretheonethath adtheabilitytolocatetherelic sandhadfoundthemall. Wethoughtwe'dstopbyandseehowyouwerererec overing, obviouslyyoucan'tleaveyetbutitappearsthatyou areonthemend." Blurr said. I nodded.

"Thanks guys, it really brightens my day when I get visitors. It can get kind of boring in here." I said, leaving out the fact that Prowl had come to see me every day since I was hurt.

"You're welcome; I just can't believe you'd sacrifice your own Spark for us." Jazz said. I shook my head.

"I did what I had to. You guys are like my new family now." I said. We chatted for a while, and the Jet twins came back eventually and talked with us. After a short while, Red Alert knocked on the doorframe and said visiting hours were over.


	19. Chapter 19

I was forced to stay at the triage facility for a few more days until Red Alert was satisfied that I could be taken off of Spark support. Ratchet thankfully convinced Red Alert that he could take care of me back at the plant until I was fully healed, and she left to fill out my release forms.

"I owe you one, Ratchet." I said. He shook his head and helped me off of the table. A little unbalanced because I hadn't been on my feet for almost a week, I stood with my legs braced until my equilibrium returned. Prowl had walked in right after Red Alert had left, holding something behind his back. I looked at him in mock surprise.

"Oh, do I get a present?" I said, smiling.

"Sort of, I thought you might want this back." Prowl said, holding out the sword I had earned as a cyber ninja. I took it gratefully but carefully, collapsing the blade and latching it into place on my hip.

"Thanks." I said. Ratchet left the room and Prowl started to follow when I called him back.

"Prowl, I need to tell you something." I said. He turned around, looking at me quizzically. "I think it best that the moment we keep our feelings in check, especially around the others. Maybe when the world is finally safe from this crap we can look into it further... but until then..." I stumbled over the words.

"I think that would be the wisest choice as well." Prowl said. I walked slowly out of the room, him behind me in case I needed help with my balance. Red Alert finished filling out the forms and told me I could leave now.

...

"Ah, it feels great to be back home." I said, flopping on the couch when we got back to the plant.

"Good to have you back." Bulkhead said. Sari threw her arms around my neck in a giant hug attack and I tried to pry her off.

"Sari! Choking, not breathing..." I laughed and she let go. I was a bit disappointed when I noticed my balance wasn't what it used to be. I made a mental note that I was going to have to train harder to get back to what I was. Sari tugged me off the couch and ran into her room.

"Close your eyes." She commanded and I laid a hand over my face. When she was satisfied I wasn't going to peek, I heard her rummaging around before hearing a sort of dragging noise. "Okay, you can look now." Sari chirped.

I dropped my hand to see a giant box with a bow on it. I looked at Sari.

"What's this for?" I asked.

"I guess as a sort of homecoming present, open it!" she said. I gave her a look, then lifted the lid off of the box. A huge grin spread across my face when I saw what was inside. "You got me a jet pack?" I said. It was identical to the one Sari used, but mine was colored to match my armor.

"Sort of, my dad made it for you. You and I can't have vehicle modes, so this is nice when you want to get someplace and no one's around to give you a lift." I pulled my jet pack out of the box, it was lighter than I expected.

"You should try it ou..." Bumblebee started to say before Ratchet snapped at him.

"I don't think so. Hayli is far from being fully recovered, the last thing we need is her getting hurt again." Ratchet said, turning to me. "The only reason Red Alert let you come back home is because I told her you'd be on bed rest for a while, and that you'd be monitored every day to make sure you were healing properly. As your medic, I'm ordering you to stay in the base and not do anything too strenuous for a while." I knew I still wasn't up to par, but I thought I felt good enough to train again.

"Can I go back to a training session with Prowl tomorrow? I don't feel that bad." I asked.

"Absolutely not. Putting too much stress on your Spark right now could cause it to give out, just relax for a few more days." Ratchet said. I facepalmed myself, mumbling low enough I thought only I could hear it.

"I've been 'relaxing' for a week... I need to go do _something_..." I said quietly. Ratchet crossed his arms.

"I may be old but I can still hear. Kid, just listen to an order for once, will you?" I sighed, nodding, and walked to Sari's room. I didn't really want to sleep, so I sat in an open area of the floor and unsheathed my sword. Setting it in front of me, I closed my eyes and started humming, practicing my processor over matter.

I made my sword rise a few feet above my head and spun it slowly, just enough to where I had to keep my focus. I concentrated on my sword, but started to let my mind drift, so I didn't notice when Prowl came to the doorway.

"You're becoming a natural at processor over matter." Prowl said, startling me and causing me to lose my concentration. My sword fell and clattered against the ground.

"Crap." I muttered, picking it up and sheathing it. "Make some noise when you move, would you?" I said. Prowl grinned.

"Would you rather me stomp around like Bulkhead?" Prowl said.

"I heard that! I can't help it, you tried to teach me once already, remember!" Bulkhead called from the living room. I looked at Prowl, trying not to laugh.

"You seriously tried to teach Bulk how to be more of a ninja? I bet that went well." I said.

"No, not at all. He destroyed quite a few trees on Dinobot island and..."

"Wait, what are Dinobots?" I asked. Prowl shook his head.

"I'll show you when Ratchet allows you to go out again, but for now why don't you go to bed." Prowl said. I glanced at the clock in Sari's room and crossed my arms.

"It's 7:00 p.m. Sleep doesn't fix everything you know." I said, my hands on my hips.

I was actually more tired than I thought. I started to watch a movie with Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Sari, but I kept nodding off and finally just fell asleep.

...

I woke the next morning to see Sari was already up. I also noticed I was back in her room.

_Prowl..._ I thought, shaking my head. I rolled out of bed and tried to work out the stiffness in my limbs as I walked into the living room. I hung back by the wall as I watched Sari trying to imitate Prowl and I meditating. She was laughing to Bumblebee, not noticing I was up. Sari was sitting cross legged on the floor, grinning as she closed her eyes and made an off-key hum.

I was a bit annoyed she was making fun of me, but I shook it off. Sitting on the floor myself, I closed my eyes and focused on moving Sari off the floor. I felt the familiar pressure against my processor and opened my eyes to see Sari looking confused and hovering a few feet off the floor. She spotted me and crossed her arms, pretending to look stern.

"Hey! Would you mind putting me down?" Sari said. I tilted my head and smiled.

"Now why would I do that? You don't seem to appreciate me and Prowl's techniques." I said. I heard a small noise behind me and craned my head back to see Prowl. I waved at him, my concentration breaking and sending Sari crashing to the floor. I looked back at her; she was face down on the ground.

"Oops, sorry." I said. Sari got up, dusting herself off.

"You dropped me..." she said.

"You did say you wanted me to put you down..." I said. She rolled her eyes, glancing at the doorway when Ratchet and Optimus walked in. Optimus yawned, but Ratchet looked like he was fairly awake, and motioned me to follow him.

"Come on kid." Ratchet said, heading for the medi-lab. I obliged, trotting to keep up, but was confused.

"Why are we going to the medi-lab?" I asked. Ratchet dropped me on the exam table and programmed a scanner, answering without looking up.

"I just need to get a quick scan to see how you're mending, I told Red Alert I'd send her the results every other day so she could see for herself how you're doing." Ratchet said. I nodded, holding still as he scanned me.

"Alright, that's all I needed. Actually..." he said peering at the scan. "You're healing well. Red Alert would probably keep you under strict orders to rest, but I think you're well enough to go out if you feel up to it." Ratchet said.

"Really? Yes!" I jumped off the table; surprised I didn't stumble when I hit the ground, and jogged back to the living room.

"Just don't do anything too strenuous!" Ratchet called after me. I grabbed my jet pack and went to find Prowl, I found him sitting at the base of his tree in his room.

"Hey Prowl, Ratchet said I could go out, can I go see who the Dinobots are now?" I said. He got up, nodding, and eyed my jet pack that I was holding.

"I would feel a bit better if you put off using that until you're fully healed..." Prowl said. I rolled my eyes, sighing, and returned the jet pack to Sari's room before going back to Prowl.

"Happy now?" I asked. Prowl gave me a faint smile and nodded. He transformed into a motorcycle and I hopped on, equipping my helmet so my hair wouldn't be a total mess. Prowl made his way through the city, heading towards Lake Erie. I noticed he was going really slow as well. I kicked him and spoke over the wind.

"Would you stop babying me already? I'm not going to fall off." I said. I heard Prowl sigh and he sped up. "Much better." I said.


	20. Chapter 20

Prowl pulled up to the dock on the far edge of town and transformed. He pointed to an island a ways out in the lake.

"There's where we're going, hold on." Prowl said before picking me up and activating his boosters. He set me down once we reached the island and looked up a slope covered in trees.

"Do you think you can make it to the top?" he said. I nodded.

"I said I feel fine." I said. Prowl gave me a look, then motioned me to go forward.

"If you start to get tired I can take you the rest of the way." Prowl said. I shook my head, and picked my way carefully up the slope. I'll admit I was a bit winded when I got to the top, but the view was amazing.

I stared down into a huge crater that looked like it was filled to the brim with trees packed so close together I couldn't see the ground. Prowl stepped up onto the rim beside me, and he bent down to something. I looked down, and saw a projector resting on the ground that looked similar to the one in Prowl's chest. Prowl deactivated the projector and the mass of trees shimmered and disappeared, revealing a sort of valley that was green and very pretty.

Prowl started to make his way down the slope into the valley and I followed. It was steep, and in some places I just had to brace my legs and slide. I grudgingly told myself that Prowl would probably have to help me back up. I met Prowl on level ground and he led me into the trees.

"They should be around here somewhere; usually it's not hard for me to find them..." Prowl said quietly. I watched my footing, being as silent as Prowl, and we came to a clearing. Prowl stepped out, me behind him, when what looked like a metal T-Rex crashed out of the trees and headed right for us.

"Me Grimlock! Grimlock destroy intruders!" the dinosaur-looking thing said as it charged. Prowl stepped in front of me, holding up his hands.

"Grimlock, stop, it's me Prowl? Remember?" Prowl said in a tone I hadn't heard him use before. It sounded almost like he was talking to a five year old or something. Grimlock stopped, looking confused.

"Prowl is friend?" Grimlock said.

"Yes, I'm a friend." Prowl soothed. Grimlock then noticed me behind Prowl and lost it again.

"Intruder! Me Grimlock destroy!" he said. I backed away and Prowl stopped Grimlock from charging.

"No, no, that's Hayli. Hayli's a friend too." Prowl said. Grimlock tilted his head.

"Hayli friend?" he said. I stepped up by Prowl nervously.

"Yeah, uh, I'm a friend." I said. Grimlock seemed to calm down, then he turned to the trees and roared. Quickly a metal Triceratops and a Pterodactyl appeared and stood beside Grimlock. Prowl turned to me with a faint smile.

"These are the Dinobots." Prowl said. Then quieter, so only I could hear, he said, "We should probably go, the Dinobots are very territorial and sometimes they even snap at me." I nodded, tentatively waving goodbye, and Prowl led me back into the trees. I noticed that I kept running into patches of spider webs, and I was shaking a particularly sticky piece off of my hand when I heard Prowl call out.

"Hayli! Run!" I heard him say and snapped my gaze to where I heard his voice coming from. I took a step back, my eyes widening.

A femme bot that looked like she was half Cybertronian, half spider, was standing a short distance from Prowl. I also saw the Decepticon insignia emblazoned on her. Backing away, I called Prowl.

"Prowl, come on!" I said. He didn't look back at me, and as I watched, the spider bot stabbed him in the chest with what must have been the equivalent of fangs. A jolt of electricity shocked him and he fell to the ground. I saw his optics flicker out and stepped towards him.

"Prowl!" I glared at the spider lady. "Who are you? What did you do to him?!" I demanded. She gave a faint smile, crossing her arms and stepping around Prowl's unconscious body towards me.

"The name's Black Arachnia. And as for your friend there...well, unless you get him the antidote within 72 megacycles he'll go offline." she said, looking at me and grinning evilly. "Oh and by the way, that little key the girl runs around with won't work; my venom derives from organic sources, so that thing won't react to it." She stepped slowly towards me. "I've always wanted to see how a techno-organic would react to my venom."

I backed up and tripped over a tree root, falling on my butt.

_Oh come on! What kind of a cyber ninja am I? Erg..._ I scrambled to my feet as Black Arachnia charged. She attempted to sting me as well, but I drew my sword and blocked her. She attacked me again and again, and in my weakened state I was starting to falter. She smirked, drawing back to strike. With a cry, I slashed my sword just as she did, slicing off about half of one of her stingers.

Energon seeped out of her wound and she hissed loudly. Glaring at me, she backed into the trees and disappeared, not breaking eye contact until she was swallowed by the shadows.

"You win this round, but I'll be back. Good luck with your friend though..." she hissed again and was gone. Shaking from the fight, I sheathed my sword and stumbled to Prowl, dropping on the ground next to him. I shook his arm, gently first but then harder.

"Prowl? Come on, you have to get up..." I said, tugging on him. His optics flickered but then went off again. I was freaking out. I didn't even know if _I _would be able to get to the top of the slope again by myself, let alone dragging Prowl. I got an idea and stood. Sprinting back to the clearing where we left the Dinobots, I was elated to see them still milling about. Grimlock raised his head and saw me.

"Oh, hi friend." he said. I panted and sputtered out my request.

"I need your help, Black Arachnia hurt Prowl and I need to get him back to the base, but I can't drag him up the slope of the crater, do you think your friend there could help?" I said, pointing at the pterodactyl. Grimlock seemed to process this for a second, then it seemed to click.

"Friend Prowl got hurt by spider lady? Me Grimlock help!" Grimlock said, motioning his prehistoric bird friend to follow me. I led him to Prowl, and the pterodactyl picked him up carefully in his claws before taking off. I made my way up the slope, sliding back more than I thought I was climbing, but I finally made it to the rim. I saw the Dinobot had laid Prowl on the rim of the crater. I nodded my thanks to the bird and it screeched and took off.

"Sorry Prowl..." I said, taking one of his arms and starting to drag him across the rim to the slope. I stayed in front of him on the descent so I didn't lose my hold and jarringly dragged him onto the small beach that marked the edge of the island.

_Now, how do I get him back to the base...?_ I thought, then facepalmed myself when I remembered my commlink. Activating it quickly, I contacted the rest of the Autobots.

"Ratchet, Optimus, Prowl's down. Some Decepticon named Black Arachnia showed up, he's been poisoned." I explained quickly.

"Where are you?" Optimus asked.

"I'm with Prowl near the lake. We're on Dinobot island." I said.

"Stay at your position, we'll be there shortly. Prime out." Optimus said, disconnecting his commlink. I faintly heard sirens start blaring and I dropped to my knees in the wet sand, panting from having to drag him. Hey, if I were strong like Bulkhead, I would have carried him, but it's not my fault I only come up to Prowl's waist. I shook Prowl again, trying to get him to stay awake. He groaned and his optics flickered for a few seconds before coming fully on. He tried to sit up but I put a hand on his shoulder.

"Stay still, Ratchet and Optimus are on their way." I said, squinting across the lake, I saw an ambulance and a fire truck drive down a boat ramp into the water. About a minute later, Ratchet and Optimus emerged from the water onto the bank and Ratchet transformed. I moved out of the way and Ratchet examined Prowl quickly.

"We need to get you back to the base, stat." Ratchet said to Prowl. Helping him up, Ratchet loaded Prowl carefully onto the back of Optimus' vehicle mode and sent him back to the base. Ratchet transformed and opened the passenger door on his vehicle mode, asking me a question as I walked up.

"How did you get him all the way down here?" Ratchet asked.

"The bird-looking Dinobot brought him to the rim of the crater and I dragged him to the beach." I said. Ratchet smacked me with the door of his vehicle mode.

"Ow! What was that for?" I complained, hopping into the passenger seat.

"I told you not to do anything strenuous!" Ratchet said, driving into the lake.

"I wasn't necessarily planning on it you know. Prowl said he'd show me the Dinobots and then we were going to come home, but then that crazy spider lady showed up and stung him or something. She said we have to get the antidote from her or Prowl's gonna die in three days." I said. Ratchet sighed.

"I know. He and Bumblebee were stung before... Optimus managed to convince Black Arachnia to hand over her antidote; maybe he can do it again. I'm actually amazed that you were able to drag Prowl that distance at all, setting aside the fact your Spark isn't back to full strength yet." Ratchet said. I shrugged, noticing I was having a bit of trouble catching my breath, but ignored it because I was too worried about Prowl.

Ratchet made his way quickly back to the plant, transformed, and kept me in his hand. He set me on a table, telling me to wait, and went over to another table where Prowl was lying. I could see Prowl was conscious, but he wasn't talking much, and if he did it sounded as if it were with great effort. Ratchet called Optimus to the medi-lab.

"Prime, you need to go back to Dinobot island and convince Black Arachnia to give you that antidote. There's nothing I can do for Prowl until you do." Ratchet said. Optimus looked torn, then nodded and transformed, taking Sari with him. Ratchet walked over to me and gave me a quick scan.

"I just need to see if exerting yourself damaged your Spark further." he said, looking at the results and getting a relived face. "It looks like you're fine; your Spark is just beating a bit faster to keep up. I'm gonna have you stay here though, so I can keep an optic on you." Ratchet said. I nodded, looking concernedly at Prowl. Ratchet followed my gaze.

"Don't worry kid, he's a tough one. I just hope Optimus comes back with the antidote..." he said. I looked up at Ratchet. Optimus seemed upset about talking to Black Arachnia... is there something I should know about? Ratchet sighed.

"Yeah, you deserve to know. Black Arachnia wasn't always a techno-organic, and she wasn't always on the bad side either. Her name used to be Elita One, and...How do I put it...? Optimus kind of liked her. The problem was, so did Sentinel." Ratchet said.

I interrupted, giving a sympathetic face.

"Ooh, love triangles never work..." I said. Ratchet looked at me funny then went on.

"They were on a mission, Sentinel, Optimus, and Elita One. Something went wrong, and Elita fell. Optimus tried to save her but fell just short; to this day he still blames himself for what happened to her." Ratchet said. I frowned.

"I'm sorry...that sounds awful...Maybe I should go apologize." I said.

"Why would you be the one to apologize?" Ratchet asked. I grinned sheepishly.

"She tried to poison me too, so I kinda sliced off one of her stingers..." I said. Ratchet shook his head.

"It doesn't matter, you were protecting yourself. Besides, you are staying right here until I say so." Ratchet said, turning and going back to Prowl.

"Yes, mother..." I mumbled. Ratchet glared at me.

"I heard that." he said. I shut up and scooted back away from the edge of the table. Crossing my legs, I looked at Prowl again. Ratchet had hooked him up to a Spark monitor, and at the moment it was steady. He was still conscious, as far as I could tell. I closed my eyes and sighed, unsheathing my sword and setting it in front of me so I could practice my processor over matter techniques.

I tried to zone out the small noises around me and hummed, lifting my sword up in the air and holding it there while I meditated. Ratchet left after a while, telling me just to stay put, I didn't even look at him and continued to meditate. Spinning my sword lightly in the air, my concentration was broken when Bulkhead and Bumblebee started arguing over something. My sword fell, but I shot out my hand and caught the hilt before it could hit the table where I was sitting. I sighed, fingering the glowing edge of the blade when Prowl's voice startled me.

"You're getting better at that every time you try. Work on blocking out your surroundings though." he said. I looked up, he had propped himself up on one arm and was grinning at me. I sheathed my sword and gave him a look.

"You aren't exactly in the greatest shape to be giving me lessons right now. Shut up and relax before you hurt yourself." I said.

"I'm fine..." he replied. I facepalmed myself.

"No, you're not. If Optimus doesn't get that antidote in three days you're going to die..." I said. He rolled his eyes, but I saw his Sparkbeat falter on the monitor. "See, told you so."

"Hayli, you're overreacting. Three days is a long time, if Optimus can't reason with Black Arachnia, it won't take long to get it from her by force. She is too concerned with saving herself to do otherwise. Besides..." he glanced up at his Spark monitor to see it falter for a beat again. "At the moment my Spark is going even stronger than yours, so you shouldn't worry about me."

"Whatever, we might as well just rest like Ratchet told us to do..." I said.


	21. Chapter 21

I had been meditating when I heard Prowl's Spark monitor give a small alarm quite a few hours later. It had been almost a full day since Optimus and Sari left and I was starting to get worried. I freaked out more when I saw Prowl was unconscious, not sleeping. I heard static in my ear and activated my commlink.

"Negotiating with Black Arachnia isn't going as planned." I heard Optimus say, and then in the background there was a loud hiss. "I'm going to need backup, Sari and I are having a bit of trouble convincing her to give us the antidote. Bumblebee, Bulkhead, I need you to come to my coordinates. Ratchet, if you could come too that would be great." Optimus said, disconnecting his commlink. I then heard Ratchet over my commlink.

"Kid, stay put with Prowl, call me if anything goes wrong." Ratchet said. I answered him quickly.

"Um, he's unconscious and his Spark monitor made a weird noise not too long ago, is that bad?" I asked. Ratchet was quiet for a minute, then spoke.

"The venom is progressing... don't worry, we'll get him fixed up kid." Ratchet said, disconnecting his commlink. I chewed on my lip, glancing up at Prowl's monitor. His Sparkbeat was strong, but uneven, and I laid a hand over my own Spark. Prowl was right, my Sparkbeat was even and steady, but much weaker than his. I just had to put faith in the Autobots that they would succeed.

I pulled in my legs again, meditating, but keeping an ear on Prowl should his condition worsen or he wakes up. The Autobots were taking a really long time, and I was starting to worry about Prowl. His monitor had been going off a lot more, and he hadn't even stirred for a few hours. I called Ratchet over my commlink.

"Ratchet, Prowl's getting worse..." I said, glancing at the monitor. "His Sparkbeat is getting more uneven and now it's weaker, please hurry..." I said. Ratchet contacted me back.

"Don't worry kid; we're on our way back. Optimus gave Black Arachnia a heck of a guilt trip; we've got the antidote now." Ratchet said. I was surprised.

"So Optimus managed to negotiate with her?" I asked.

"Not really. We beat the living crap out of her and she finally agreed to help us." Sari interrupted. I rolled my eyes and disconnected my commlink, looking up at Prowl.

"Hang on, they're on their way back..." I said quietly as his Spark monitor beeped another alarm. I heard the Autobots pull in a few minutes later and Ratchet came quickly into the medi-lab. He glanced at Prowl's monitor and frowned, taking out what must have been the antidote to Black Arachnia's venom.

I jumped off my table instead slid onto the one where Prowl lay. I stayed back momentarily and Ratchet gave Prowl the antidote in what looked like a modified syringe. Prowl's Sparkbeat gradually but quickly returned to normal and Ratchet suddenly put a hand to his ear, activating his commlink. After a second he turned to me.

"I'll be right back, but Prowl's gonna be fine." he said. I sighed after he left and turned to see Prowl's optics flicker back on. He put a hand to his head and groaned, sitting up. Relief flooded me and I hug attacked him, smiling.

"You're okay!" I said, bear-hugging him. Prowl jerked back in surprise, but then it was my turn to be surprised when I felt him lay a hand on my back. Grinning wider, I stepped back as he unhooked himself from the Spark monitor and looked at me.

"I thought we agreed to keep our emotions in check?" he said.

"Yeah, well, for one there's no one here. Secondly, I would have done that anyway because I thought you were going to die and now you're going to be okay." I caught myself rambling and talking fast at the same time.

"God...I sound like Sari and Blurr combined..." I said. Prowl chuckled and I dropped off the table as he swung his legs around to get down as well. He stood, somewhat stiffly, but ignored it and walked out to the living room. I wasn't sure if we were supposed to leave, but I followed Prowl anyway. Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Sari had the TV on, but they weren't really watching it. Bumblebee turned and saw Prowl and I, hopping up off the couch.

"Hey, guys. Are you going to be okay?" he said. I looked up at Prowl before nodding.

"Yeah, we're fine now; we both just need to take it easy." I said. Bulkhead got off the couch quickly and grabbed Prowl and I in a hug. I was kind of crushed between Bulkhead's arm and Prowl, and thankfully Prowl fixed the situation.

"Bulkhead, I think you're crushing Hayli... Would you mind putting us down now?" Prowl said. Bulkhead dropped us immediately and I landed on my feet. Prowl stepped back, turning his head to the doorway when Ratchet walked in. Seeing us, Ratchet crossed his arms.

"What are you two doing out here? I thought I told you to stay put!" Ratchet said. I groaned.

"Ratchet, I'm fine. Yes, if you want me to, I'll stay at the base for a day or two, but it's not like I'm made of glass. I'm built just like one of you now, so I can take a lot more than I could than when I was just human." I said. Prowl spoke up as well.

"I believe Hayli is right, Ratchet. Though it would probably be wise for us both to relax for a few days, I also feel fine. I'm not quite operating fully yet, but you know I've always been a fast healer." Prowl said. Ratchet sighed, shaking his head.

"Kids..." he mumbled to himself. "I suppose you're right...but both of you, just stay put until tomorrow, you should be alright by then."

"Can I train tomorrow?" I said. Before Ratchet could say no, I spoke again. "I really need to work on my balance, for some reason after the last time I got hurt, I haven't been myself." I pleaded. Ratchet sighed again.

"I suppose...just don't exert yourself too much." he said. I smiled.

"Yes!" I said, jumping up.

...

Prowl and I took it easy for a while, it had been three days and I was back to training rigorously. My balance improved quickly, I would just have to work on improving my stamina to what it was.

I was training with Prowl in the open room of the plant, and we were sparring. On his suggestion, we were unarmed.

"Good, on the battlefield don't hold back though." Prowl said as I landed a solid kick on him. I nodded. We were about to practice sparring with our weapons when I heard static in my ear. I activated my commlink the same time Prowl did to hear Bumblebee, who was out on scout duty.

"Guys?! I need backup now! Megatron and his buddies are tearing up Detroit, hurry!" he said and patched out. Prowl transformed and I snatched my jet pack; I had practiced the last couple days and had really gotten the hang of flying. Taking off, I flew low, close behind Prowl. I could already see the activity and equipped my helmet and face mask.

Sari flew up parallel to me and I glanced over at her, mentally facepalming myself when I noticed something. I spoke over the wind from behind my mask.

"Have you noticed we look like the Jet twins if they were girls and techno-organics?" I said. Sari laughed, nodding.

"Hey look, we're even sort of the right color!" Sari said. My happy moment lasted a split second before I noticed where Megatron was blasting away.

I didn't notice the familiar streets as we pulled up, but it all came rushing back when I saw the building crumbled and in flames.

My old apartment... I landed, in shock, and took a step towards the rubble. Many of my old neighbors were groaning or dead on the pavement; I didn't want to think about who was crushed under the rubble... I scanned the wreckage, searching for my mom and sister, and nearly crumpled to my knees when I saw her.

Mom was lying half on her side under a huge chunk of concrete. I stepped towards her, oblivious to the battle around me. Stronger now than I was as a human, I strained against the cement and pushed it off of her. I dropped to one knee, shaking her.

"Mom...? Mom!" I pleaded, but I could see it was already too late. Her eyes were closed, but I could see her ribs were crushed, and a fresh wound glistened with blood on the side of her head. I hoped she died quickly and didn't suffocate. The Autobots were keeping the Decepticons busy, but no one was really available to help. It was then I heard the scream.

I knew that high-pitched wail of fear well...she had often made the same noise when I had startled her, but this sound was fused with pure terror. It was my sister.

Whirling, I saw her struggling in Megatron's grip. Her eyes locked on mine, confusion first and then recognition spreading across her face.

"Hayli! Help!" She wailed. She shouldn't have said anything, Megatron looked from me to Tess struggling in his hand.

"Oh, what do we have here? I'll bet my left servo this is your pathetic younger sister." Megatron said. I stood, glaring.

"Put. Her. Down." I growled. Megatron grinned evilly.

"You know, I could just kill you, but that would be too simple. I think I'll make you suffer..." With that, he tossed Tess up in the air, slashing with his sword and tearing open her stomach. She screamed again, this time in pain, and fell through the air to the ground. Sprinting forward, I caught her. I backed away slowly, my gaze flicking from my sister back to Megatron.

He smirked, turning his back on me before returning to the fight. I turned my attention to Tess, dropping to the ground and holding her in my lap. I could already tell she wasn't going to make it, her abdomen was torn wide open and blood was streaming out of her wound fast enough I knew there was no stopping it. She was breathing hard, and her eyes met mine.

"Hey sis...you look different..." she panted. I was trying not to cry, and I shielded her view when she tried to see how badly she was hurt. I sniffed, brushing a piece of her hair out of her face.

"Yeah, I'm an Autobot now." I choked out. She smiled faintly.

"Cool...Where's Mom?" she asked. I lied and told her mom got taken to the hospital. "Okay..." she trailed off, then grimaced. "Hey sis, my stomach hurts..." she said. I bit the inside of my mouth hard to keep from losing it.

"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have let you see me, you wouldn't have gotten hurt." I said. Tess looked past me for a moment, over my shoulder, and I flicked my gaze back to see Prowl, who had broken away from the fight to help me. I looked back at Tess, the blood flowing out of her wound was lessening and I could tell she didn't have long.

"It wouldn't...have mattered...That bad guy grabbed me...after I was trying...to catch your cat..." she said in a near whisper.

"Stella made it?" I said. She nodded faintly, starting to lose focus. Prowl knelt next to me, sadly taking in the situation.

"Is she going to be alright?" he asked. I blocked Tess's view and shook my head. Prowl gave me a sympathetic look, then stepped back, protecting us. Tess was losing focus, her gaze continually drifting past me into the sky. I tried to keep her awake but knew she was leaving. She whispered one last time.

"I love you, Hayli." Tess said. I felt a tear slide down my face and choked out a reply.

"I love you too." I said. Tess smiled faintly, her gaze drifting to the sky. Her eyes glazed over and she went limp, her head falling back against my arm. I refused to let my emotions fully show at the moment, I could grieve later. Gently, I laid her on the ground and eased off the hoodie she had been wearing, using it to cover the ugly wound over her stomach. I closed her eyes and stood, stepping back.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked back to see Prowl.

"I'm very sorry..." he said. I stepped away, my grief boiling to rage. The sight of my sister's blood covering my armor just added fuel to the fire and when Prowl tried to go to me I stopped him, literally shaking with anger.

"You would be smart to stay out of my way right now." I said in a near growl. Unsheathing my sword, I walked to the heart of the battle, up to Megatron himself. He broke away from Optimus, saw me, and smirked.

"Well, well, look who it is. I'll bet your little sister is dead by now, that's why you're here." Megatron said. I snapped then, charging him with my sword raised. He clashed easily with me, but anger hyper-charged me and I twisted my sword hard, wrenching his hand around and causing him to drop his own blade. I kicked it back and charged him again, scoring deep cuts in his armor wherever I could. His calm demeanor just infuriated me more.

"Yes, feel the anger, let it fuel your hatred of me. Look at you, you're a true Decepticon at Spark." Megatron said. With a cry, I slashed my sword across the armor on his stomach and stepped back, panting and spent. He evidently had had enough, because he retrieved his sword and called back his troops.

"Decepticons, transform and rise up!" he shouted and took off into the sky. I sheathed my sword and stumbled back to where I left my sister, dropping to my knees at her side. I heard Optimus behind me before he saw Tess on the ground.

"Hayli? What in Spark's sake were you doing, you didn't fight until just now and..." Optimus was saying before Prowl elbowed him, nodding to my dead sister. Optimus immediately looked sorry and I waved him away before he could apologize. I noticed that Sari wasn't around until she came walking up with something in her arms. I was in disbelief at first, but when I saw what it was I stood and went over to her.

"Hey look, I found this cat hiding in the shadows; she came right up to me when I called her." Sari said, stroking who I now knew was my cat. I was sure it was Stella, she was a golden tabby with a black nose and two white front paws, and I hadn't seen any other cats around that looked even similar to her. Not to mention the fact she was wearing the collar I had bought her a few weeks before I had to leave. I gave a faint smile.

"Her name is Stella; she used to be my cat..." I said. The emotion of my ordeal and the loss of my family hit me full force again and I stepped away.

"I-I need to go. Make sure my mom and sister are taken care of...and Stella will be fine wherever." I said, activating my jet pack and going back to the plant quickly. I didn't have the slightest idea of what to do or how to cope, so I dropped through the hole in the roof of Prowl's room and landed in his tree. I pulled off my jet pack and dropped it to the floor, tears already streaming down my face. I sat with my back to the trunk and pulled my knees into my chest.

Hugging my legs, I just let loose and sobbed. I'm not a crier, but this would definitely merit an outflow of emotion. A few times I'd think I could pull it together, but then I'd open my eyes, see Tess's blood on my armor, and lose it again.

After a short while, I didn't hear anything, but I felt a soft touch on my shoulder and looked up, wiping my eyes. Prowl was kneeling on the branch in front of me, sympathy in his expression.

"I don't begin to understand the complexity of human emotion, but losing your family is no small thing. I don't know what I can do to help..." he said, his gaze softening. I shook my head, not really able to talk because I was still nearly hyperventilating.

"If you need to keep doing that...leaking thing that humans do, I can leave you alone." Prowl said. I shook my head no, trying to get up. I had cried enough, though I could still grieve, tears weren't going to bring them back. Prowl helped me up, eying the now-dried blood on my armor.

"Why don't we get you cleaned up?" he said. I nodded, jumping to the floor. I picked up my jet pack that I'd dropped and returned it to Sari's room, coming back to Prowl. He managed to find an old rag and wet it in the sink. Wringing it out, he handed it to me and I numbly wiped my sister's blood off of myself. I found the activity sort of cleansing, as I cleaned my armor, I washed away the grief for my sister and mom as well.

Prowl took the red-smeared cloth from me, tossing it in a wastebasket, and knelt so he was optic-level with me.

"Your family will not be forgotten, there was nothing you could have done." Prowl reassured.

"Tess might have lived...if she hadn't let Megatron know I was her sister, he might have let her go..." I mumbled, dropping my gaze back to the floor. Prowl lifted my chin gently, making me look at him.

"This was not your fault, don't ever think that it was. Megatron is a Sparkless coward who preys on the weak, don't blame yourself." he said. Looking at me, he frowned. "Something's still bothering you, isn't it?"

"When I lost it back there and attacked Megatron...he said I should let my anger fuel my actions and that I was a true Decepticon at Spark." I said. Prowl's expression softened.

"You are not, nor ever will you be, a Decepticon. You've proven yourself above and beyond that fact. As for your reaction in the fight, I'd say you had more than enough reason and provocation to justify your actions." Prowl said. I sighed, still feeling like I wanted to crawl in a tiny dark hole and never come out.

Prowl dropped his hand from my face and I looked up. I surprised Prowl and me by throwing myself into Prowl's arms and hugging him. I considered crying again but decided a hug would suffice. Prowl in turn surprised me; he laid his arm across my back and gave me a comforting hug in return. I stepped back and looked up at him.

"Thank you, sometimes a hug is all someone needs to feel better..." I said. The dark feeling in me was still there, but it had definitely been lessened. Prowl stood, leading me to the living room where I got another surprise.

Sari was sitting on the floor, giggling as Stella rubbed her head against Sari's hand, begging to be petted. A smile spread over my face and I walked over to Sari. Stella saw me too, and her eyes immediately brightened as she swished her tail. Squirming, she jumped out of Sari's arms and ran to me, rubbing against my leg. I laughed quietly, picking her up and holding her in one arm while I scratched the spot behind her ear that she loved. Stella immediately relaxed and started purring loudly.

I looked up from my cat to see everyone looking at me. I kept stroking Stella and spoke.

"I thought you were going to give her to the animal shelter or something?" I said. Optimus shook his head.

"This organic creature is your pet, we assumed you had a fondness for it so we thought you'd want it back."

"You mean she can stay?" I said. Optimus nodded and a grin spread across my face. Stella seemed to notice the attention was on her, and she loved it. Rolling onto her back, I stroked her stomach and she meowed at me.

"She's pretty self-dependent, she can find her own food, but when we were in our apartment we would feed her if she was starting to get thin. Usually she's pretty solitary, that is unless I'm around, then she's glued to me the entire time." I glanced at Prowl. "You might want to keep her out of your room; she won't hesitate to eat the birds." I said.

"I actually find the hunting process very fascinating, the ability of an organic creature to stalk another with such grace..." Prowl said. I shrugged, putting Stella down. She meowed plaintively, wanting to be held again.

"She's litter box trained too, but if she's able she prefers to go outside." I said. Bumblebee, finally giving in to his curiosity, knelt down and let Stella sniff his hand. She sneezed, then rubbed her face against his hand. Bee smiled and scratched her head with one finger while she purred. I laughed.

"She likes you, Bumblebee." I said. With a _mrrow_, Stella jumped up onto Bee's shoulder and sat there like a parrot. Everyone laughed and Stella swished her tail back and forth in content.


	22. Chapter 22

Stella slept next to me like she always used to, and I stroked her back gently as I fell asleep. The soft light from my optics was reflected into hers, and they shone a sort of eerie green. I couldn't really sleep, but I heard Sari get up in the middle of the night to do something, and when I rolled over I could see the glow from the TV on the outside wall. I sighed, closing my eyes and trying to sleep.

I woke what I thought was the next morning, sitting up and yawning. I looked around, not seeing Stella anywhere, and stretched before I noticed something. The feeling of muscles and bones had replaced machinery, and I looked at myself to see I was fully human again. I was wearing a light blue hoodie with black highlights that suggested my old armor, and underneath it I was wearing a black T-shirt. I was also wearing dark gray jeans and blue sneakers. Gaping at myself, I also noticed I was up before Sari again.

I went to wake her up as well, and found she was fully human as well, looking like more of a teenager than usual. I shook her awake, she groggily sat up, then did a double-take when she saw me.

"Hayli, you're..." she trailed off. I nodded, still confused.

"So are you." I said. She looked over her appearance, then suddenly groaned and facepalmed herself. "What's wrong?" I asked. She glanced at me, jumping out of bed.

"Please tell me it's not this again..." Sari muttered, grabbing my arm and half-dragging me into the living room. I gaped when I saw the rest of the Autobots, er, at least that's who they were supposed to be. They seemed a bit peeved, but the creepy part was, now they were all human as well.

Optimus looked like a fairly average guy, his features still resembled when he was a robot but he was greatly changed. Ratchet was an older guy with gray hair and a sort of futuristic looking medic outfit. Prowl looked exactly like the hologram of a policeman he sometimes used when he was out on scout duty and didn't want to draw attention to himself; a motorcycle driving itself isn't exactly normal... Bulkhead looked sort of like a football player, tall and broad, much like he was as a robot. I snickered at Bumblebee, he was even shorter than me, and it looked like he was a few years younger as well. I also never imagined him as being African-American.

There was another thing, much like my attire, the Autobot's; er Automen's clothing resembled their armor. Optimus was wearing a red jacket and jeans, Ratchet's medic outfit was red and white like his armor, and he also had a scar over his right eye. Prowl, like I said, looked exactly like his police hologram and he was wearing sunglasses that resembled the visor he wore. Bulkhead was wearing an army-green jersey and matching shorts, and Bumblebee was of course dressed in yellow. He had a yellow cap as well, and there were black highlights on his clothes to suggest the stripes on his car mode. All I could really do was stare open-mouthed before I sputtered out a question.

"What the heck happened to us?" I said. Ratchet crossed his arms.

"It looks like Soundwave put us in his alternate reality again. For Spark's sake I hate this! Being an organic is just..." Ratchet said. I crossed my arms again.

"But that's impossible, I slagged Soundwave myself, there's no way he could be back online." Optimus said.

"It's possible the Decepticons rebuilt him after the fight, and now they're attempting to reprogram us into Decepticons again." Ratchet said.

"We need to get out of here anyway; Soundwave is probably trying to reprogram us as we speak." Optimus said. To tell the truth, I kind of missed being human, but I knew Optimus was right.

"So how exactly do we get out of this crazy place?" I said. Prowl seemed to think a moment, then answered me.

"If this alternate reality is similar to the last one we were in, I think I've got a plan." Prowl said, turning to me. "If you and I use processor over matter, we might be able to escape to our true bodies. We'll have to take Soundwave offline for good, and we'll have to be fast because I underestimated his strength the last time this happened." Prowl explained.

"Hey, we're cyber-ninjas, speed is our middle name." I joked.

"Even so, it will be difficult to return to our bodies, you are going to have to focus hard to break Soundwave's control. Once we're out, regroup with me and we'll take out Soundwave. Then we'll free the others." Prowl said. I nodded, dropping cross-legged on the concrete after he did. I closed my eyes, humming quietly, and focused on willing myself back to my original body. I felt the pressure against my processor, but then it changed, becoming painful the harder I tried to escape. I assumed this was Soundwave trying to keep me down, so I concentrated harder and my eyes snapped open.

Prowl was already awake, he was attempting to hold off Shockwave as he waited for me to wake up. It appeared we were underground, and I leapt off of a sort of tilted table, feeling something that was attached to my head come off. I glanced back to see it was a sort of device that must have been being used to reprogram me. I unsheathed my sword, rushing to help Prowl who was just flung into a wall.

Soundwave focused his attention on me, holding a sort of guitar. I could hardly understand what he was saying, like he was talking with a heavily mechanized voice.

"Reprogramming not complete, must correct malfunction." Soundwave said. He strummed down on the guitar, and I put my hand over my ears at the noise. I guessed the blast had been to cripple my mind, because I was having trouble staying in my true form. I felt like I could be dragged back to the alternate reality any second. Shaking it off, Prowl signaled to stay back and I did so.

Soundwave processed us splitting up to attack, and threw his guitar into the air. It transformed into a sort of bird and attacked Prowl.

"Didn't see that coming..." I muttered. Prowl tried to dispatch the bird, but it was a bit too fast. While he was occupied, Soundwave picked up another guitar, strumming down hard and blasting Prowl with noise. The force knocked him against the far wall, but I had time to fire a shot of my own, squarely catching Soundwave in the chest. He staggered back, keeping a hold on his guitar.

I charged forward, my sword's tip dragging on the ground, and blasted Soundwave again.

"Laserbeak, eliminate the techno-organic and the cyber-ninja." Soundwave said. With a screech, Laserbeak flew at me. Without checking my pace, I swung my sword, hard, and cut the stupid bird symmetrically in half before leaping into the air.

"I don't think so..." I said, twirling my sword and stabbing it directly into Soundwave's spark. Unlike me, he went offline instantly, the guitar falling from his servo and hitting the ground with an unpleasant twang. I yanked my sword from his chest, breathing hard. Jumping off of his offline body I landed lightly on my feet, sheathing my sword and going to help Prowl.

He had a hand to his head, and I helped him up.

"Nice work, let's wake up the others." he said. I nodded, hurrying over and pulling the sort of weird helmet off of Sari and Bumblebee. Prowl handled Optimus, Ratchet and Bulkhead. They came back to reality quickly, groaning.

"Geez, I've got a pounding processor ache." Bumblebee complained. He noticed Soundwave on the floor and Laserbeak in half. "Who slagged these two?" he asked.

"Hayli did." Prowl answered. I looked back at the Decepticons on the ground.

"I-I...don't know what happened. It's like I went into a sort of 'zone.' I was going to take Soundwave offline and then it was just like a reflex when I sliced that bird in half." I said, oddly feeling guilty. "Should I have done something else? I mean, I just _killed_ someone..." I said. Optimus shook his head.

"No, you did what any of us would have done, and I honor your bravery. Though, we really should have their shells disposed of properly...which means calling the Elite Guard to take the remains back to Cybertron." Optimus said. Sari groaned.

"Can you at least ask them not to freaking bring Sentinel? One of these days I swear I'm going to be court marshaled for slagging him after he says one of his smart remarks about how much he hates 'organics,'" Sari said. Optimus rolled his eyes, motioning Bulkhead to carry Soundwave. Bumblebee gathered the two halves of Laserbeak and we all crowded into a sort of elevator.

"Where exactly are we?" I asked.

"At the moment we're underneath the plant, it's sort of like a basement." Ratchet said. We rode in the elevator to the top and Optimus stepped out, appearing to change the frequency in his commlink because I heard him out loud and not in my ear.

"Elite Guard, this is Optimus Prime. We have need of disposal of the Decepticons Soundwave and Laserbeak, requesting removal as soon as possible." Optimus said. I fiddled around with the frequency on my commlink until I heard Jazz's voice.

"Who was the one who slagged 'em?" Jazz said. Optimus seemed to notice I was listening in, and motioned for me to answer.

"I did." I said.

"Hayli? You took both those cons offline? Crazy... Well, anyway, we'll be there in a few megacycles to pick 'em up. See you then, Jazz out." Jazz said, deactivating his commlink. I switched mine back to the Autobot's frequency.

"So, do we just chill out until the Elite Guard get here?" I said. Bumblebee shrugged.

"I guess, though it's a bit creepy having those two around, even if they are offline..." Bumblebee said.

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	23. Chapter 23

I practiced my agility with I decided I was going to train for a while by myself, and everyone seemed preoccupied with something, so I had the training room to myself. the conveyor arms, though I was doing it with the conveyor belt on as well. Bumblebee and Bulkhead had even been nice enough to make me a set of makeshift uneven bars.

I jumped on top of the shorter set before leaping to the taller and grabbing it, my momentum causing me to swing all the way around the bar. I did a few times around the taller bar, spun in the air and switched directions. Reaching the top of the tall set again, I let go and back flipped, grabbing the shorter bars and swinging around. Every other time I'd get to the top I'd switch directions on the short bar.

Jumping up from the shorter set, I went back to the taller, going one time around, fast. I let go, sending me into the air. I did a double front flip while spinning and landed lightly on my feet. Straightening, I jumped when a few people started clapping and startled me. Looking at the door, I saw Jazz, Prowl, and the Jet twins. Jazz and the twins were the ones applauding.

I felt my face flush in embarrassment.

"Oh, hi...I didn't see you there." I muttered.

"Hey yourself. Those were some wicked moves just then, girl!" Jazz said. I dipped my head in modesty.

"Just an old gymnastics routine..." I said. The Jet twins looked at each other, speaking at the same time before looking at me.

"Gymnastics?" they said.

"Please do tell what is that." Jetfire said. I found it a little hard to explain, and shrugged.

"Overrated is what it is... I don't really know how to describe it. Think of it as sort of as an agility training exercise." I said.

"Hayli do teach us this, 'gymnastics?'" Jetstorm asked. I glanced at Jazz.

"I'd love to, but I doubt Sentinel will allow you to stay on Earth long enough to learn." I said. Jetfire tugged on my arm.

"Oh, then you come to Cybertron with us, yes?" he said. I gently pulled away.

"Sorry guys...I don't know if I can. Optimus would have to okay it, and there's Stella that I have to take care of..." I said, giving them a sympathetic look. Prowl discussed something with Jazz quietly, then looked at me.

"You should go, I'm sure Optimus would okay it. Don't worry, I'll look after your pet." Prowl said with a small smile. I sighed.

"Alright, I'll go." I said, then thought of something. "Wait, you aren't coming, Prowl?" I said. Prowl shook his head.

"I'm confident you'll be fine by yourself." Prowl said. Then quieter, even though the twins could still hear, he spoke while pointing at them. "I doubt these two will leave you alone either." I sighed, nodding, and the twins both laughed. Jetstorm dragged me out towards the living room and I stopped him as we passed Sari's room.

"Just a second guys, let me grab something." I said, retrieving my jet pack and putting it on before going back out. The twins laughed.

"Look brother, she can fly now too." Jetstorm said.

"Yes, but I bet we are better at it!" Jetfire said. I rolled my eyes and followed them to the living room where Jazz and Prowl had beat us there. Thankfully, Jazz and the Jet twins were the only ones there.

"Where are the others?" I asked.

"Blurr left for a patrol as soon as we arrived, but he'll be back. Ultra Magnus and Sentinel were busy though, so it's just us." Jazz said. Jetfire stepped up.

"Mister Jazz sir, permission to take Hayli aboard?" he said.

"Sure, as long as she really wants to go." Jazz said.

"Yeah, I'm going." I answered. The Jet twins high-fived each other, each of them taking one of my arms and dragging me outside. I almost had to run to keep up and called back over my shoulder to Prowl.

"Bye, I'll see you in a few days, I guess..." I said. The twins let go of me at the base of the ramp and I walked up it behind them. I assumed Jazz wasn't far behind, and Blurr was already inside when we got to the central room. He looked up, saw me, and darted in front of the twins.

"Whatisthetechno-organicdoinghere?" Blurr asked. Jetfire nudged his brother.

"She, uh, is coming with us back to Cybertron. We show her around, she teach us uh, 'gymnastics.'" Jetstorm said. Blurr sighed, going back to the keyboard where he was working. He started typing again, and stopped momentarily to look back at us.

"Wouldanyofyouhappentoknowwhi chbotslaggedthosetwoDeceptic ons? Ineedtoincludetheminmyreport ." Blurr asked. Both the twins simultaneously pointed at me. I gave a sheepish grin.

"You? HowdidyoumanagetotakeSoundwa veandLaserbeakofflinebyyours elf? It'salltheEliteGuardcandotosimp lyholdthemoffinabattle." Blurr said, typing as he spoke.

I shrugged.

"I have no idea; I guess I was just protecting my friends." I said. Blurr still looked skeptical, but finished typing his report.

"Come, we give you tour." Jetfire said after Jazz came aboard and started to fire up the ship. I followed them as they took me to basically every part of the ship, including the brig. They were walking down the line of what I thought were all empty cells, but there was one prisoner.

"Starscream?" I wondered aloud. The twins stopped and looked at each other while grinning.

"Not exactly, that is one of his clones, his name Ramjet" Jetstorm said.

"How dare you insult me! I am the original Starscream!" the clone said.

"Oh, we forgot to mention, this one is a pathological liar. Everything he says isn't true." Jetfire said.

"I am not! I'm perfectly capable of telling the truth." the clone said. I laughed.

"I didn't think it could really be Starscream, that one's paint job is different. How many of these are there?" I said. Jetstorm shrugged.

"Five?" he said. His brother shrugged.

"I believe it's around that number. Come, let us go." Jetfire said. We left the brig, returning to the bridge where Jazz was piloting the ship and Blurr was nowhere to be found. Jazz looked over at us when we walked in.

"Hey, you're back. We've got a few megacycles until we get to Cybertron, you can just chill out here if you want. I looked around for a second, wondering where Blurr had gone.

"Hey Jazz, do you know where Blurr went?" I asked.

"Yeah, he went to go power down for a little while. That crazy kid can't ever seem to hold still for more than a cycle, but I guess even he gets tired eventually." Jazz answered.

We occupied ourselves in different ways. Jazz put the ship on autopilot to watch the twins play a game similar to chess. I couldn't grasp the rules, so eventually I gave up and sat in an open area of the floor to meditate. I was going to use my sword, but I saw an empty crate that would work better for practicing my processor over matter.

I was getting good enough at it where I didn't have to close my eyes to focus anymore, and, humming softly, I reached out with my mind to the crate. I raised it a couple yards in the air and kept it there, spinning and tilting it slowly. Jazz looked up from the sort of chess game and saw me. He smiled.

"You're getting really good at that, girl." Jazz said. I didn't lose my focus and drop the crate, Prowl had been working on teaching me to focus and multitask while using processor over matter.

"Thanks, Prowl's a really great teacher...and an amazing friend." I said, smirking at a thought that ran through my head.

_Kind of like the Jackie Chan of the Cybertronian world..._ I thought. Shaking it off, I kept the crate up in the air. Jetfire nudged his brother when he saw me.

"Brother look, she can do processor over matter." Jetfire said. Jetstorm looked over at me and gaped. I laughed, this time losing my focus and dropping the crate. It bounced on the floor with a thud.

"Crap." I stood and was about to go pick up the crate when the twins beat me there.

"Don't worry, we've got it. Why don't you 'chill out' as mister Jazz says?" Jetstorm said.

...

I must have drifted off while I had been sitting in a chair, because my eyes snapped open and I found myself lying on a sort of bunk. Sitting up, I looked around. The room was dim, and there were bunks lining the walls. I spotted Blurr on his side with his back to me. He must have still been sleeping.

I felt the ship lurch and assumed we were on Cybertron once again. Getting up, I walked over to where Blurr was and shook him. His optics flickered on quickly and he sat up.

"I think we're here, we overslept." I said. Blurr nodded once, darting out of the room. I went to the doorway, glancing down the halls and just caught a glimpse of him going around a corner. Thanks to the twin's tour, I knew how to get back to the bridge, but I didn't know if they were waiting on me so I started jogging down the hallway. I ducked around the corner, only to run smack into Jetstorm who must have been coming to get me.

My momentum caused me to knock him backward and fall on the floor. Embarrassingly, I fell on top of him. My face flushed and I scrambled to get off of him. Jetstorm looked incredibly surprised, though I wanted to slap the slight content look off of his face.

Without looking at him, I walked quickly to the bridge. Jazz and Blurr had loaded the remains of Soundwave and Laserbeak onto a sort of hovering cart and Blurr was guiding it down the ramp to two waiting Autobots. Jazz started down the ramp as well and I hurried to catch up. I stood by Jazz on the ground as he introduced me.

"Ironhide, Rodimus, this is Hayli. She's the bot who slagged these two." Jazz said. I waved sheepishly at them while they both gaped at me.

"This little techno organic did this?" Rodimus said, looking from me to Laserbeak's halved body. I unsheathed my sword, talking as I did so.

"Yeah, this thing is becoming my new best friend." I said, turning the blade and fingering the glowing edge.

"Oh, did I forget to mention she's also a cyber-ninja?" Jazz said, smiling. This brought fresh looks of amazement.

"We should get going; the Council will want a full report of this." Ironhide said. Jazz agreed, transforming and opening the door of his car mode. I could have flown, but I was still a little bit tired so I took Jazz up on his offer of a ride.

I hopped into the passenger seat, shutting the door. My jet pack was a little uncomfortable to wear in a tight space, so I took it off and put it in the back seat of Jazz's alternate mode. He drove off, towards the capital, and I heard the Jet twins go flying over us. Turning my attention back to Jazz, I spoke.

"These are some nice wheels, man." I said. I had a feeling Jazz would be smiling.

"Thanks, organics really can't be that bad if they can come up with a sweet ride like this." Jazz said.


	24. Chapter 24

"That was close...try it again." I said as Jetfire failed to stick the landing on a double back flip with a twist. He tried once more, succeeding, and looked at me with a grin.

"That was right way to do it, yes?" he asked. I laughed.

"Yeah you did it right. You both are really fast learners, I don't think I can teach you much else. I'd say just keep practicing and try new moves, just don't hurt yourself." I said. The twins high fived each other, then turned to me.

"We take break now, go for a fly, you come?" Jetstorm asked. I shrugged.

"Sure, let's go." I said, activating my jet pack that I hadn't taken off except for when I rode with Jazz. We had been practicing outside so we simply took off into the air. I followed them, and they just seemed to be enjoying themselves. When they were in jet mode, I wasn't quite fast enough to stay close to them, but I was fast enough to stay with them.

Angling back, they headed for the city and I barrel rolled to follow them. They ducked happily through the buildings, giggling, and I laughed along with them. Near the heart of the city, they shot through an alley and I angled to follow. Suddenly I wasn't laughing anymore.

A jolt of electricity hit me, shorting out my jet pack and causing me to struggle to stay conscious. I fell, closing my eyes as I expected to hit the ground. My fall was halted as I felt a cable wrap around me and jerk me back up into the air. Sort of like a yo-yo, the cable wrapped around me from my shoulders to my waist, effectively trapping me. I shook off the effects of the shock, and craned my head around to see who had caught me. My optics widened in disbelief.

"No, that-that's impossible." I said. Staring down at me from a rooftop with a smirk was Lockdown.

"Did ya miss me?" Lockdown said with a sneer. Hauling my trapped self up, he slung me over his shoulder and walked a few paces, deactivating a hologram that concealed his ship. He boarded quickly, and I just got a glimpse of the Jet twins circling back when they noticed I wasn't following anymore. The hatch shut, and Lockdown carried me to a small, empty room before tossing me in, bound and all.

I hit the floor with a thud, unable to catch myself, and strained into a sitting position.

"The Autobots would probably pay a pretty penny to get you back; my bet is the Decepticons will pay even more." Lockdown said. He left, the door to the room sliding shut with a hiss behind him. I strained against the cable around me, and noticed something. Whenever I struggled, the cable tightened, so if I didn't hold still I'd be crushed.

"Well this sucks..." I muttered out loud. I thought, racking my brain for an escape plan, and would have facepalmed myself had my hands been free. I judged I could use processor over matter to at least keep the ropes loose enough to be comfortable. I closed my eyes, humming, and focused on forcing the ropes away from me. I did this for a while, probably a few hours, before the door hissed open. Focusing, I shoved with my mind, and the ropes slid from my body.

Leaping up, I stood defensively.

"Processor over matter, impressive, for a techno-organic." Lockdown said with an evil smirk.

"Did this techno-organic forget to mention she's a cyber ninja?" I said, glaring and assessing how fast I might be able to dodge past Lockdown. Disappointingly, the door slid shut, and Lockdown stepped towards me, equipping his hook mod on his hand.

"Did I forget to mention I trained as one as well?" Lockdown said, raising his hook.

"I'm slagged..." I muttered. Lockdown laughed, slamming down his hook. I jumped aside, and he freed himself quickly.

"I never really got the hang of that processor over matter crud, but I can still kick your aft into next week." Lockdown said. I continually circled him, not drawing my sword but using energy from my hands to blast him when I could. Finally, he swung at me again, and I had no choice but to draw my weapon. Clashing my sword with his hook, I braced myself and pushed against him.

"Nice sword, I like it. I like that jet pack you're wearing too." Lockdown said. I leaped back, blasting at him with my hands. My shot blasted the wall, dust flying in the air. I stood with my legs braced, ready to defend myself, but Lockdown leaped out of the dust and clashed with me again, this time trying to hurt me with his chainsaw mod. My sword caught on the teeth and stopped it from spinning while I strained to hold him back.

"A valiant effort, but you can't win." Lockdown said. A sudden blinding pain struck me in the stomach, and I looked down to see myself impaled on Lockdown's hook. Sneering, he ripped his mod out of me and shoved me to the ground, pinning me down with his foot.

He grabbed one of the wings of my jet pack, yanking it off, and he tossed it behind him.

"There's another thing, I need to know where those relics of the Primes are. The Decepticons have put a hefty bounty on their return. I know you know where they are, if I were you I'd start talking." he said. I glared, and mimed locking my lips and throwing away the key. My stomach and back burned, but I returned my sword to its spot and struggled to shove Lockdown's foot off of me.

"It's no use. You aren't leaving here until I get my bounty. As a side note, that little battle scar I just gave you isn't fatal, you'll be fine. Though like I said, I really like that sword." Lockdown said. Revving his chainsaw, he lowered it to my hip where I kept my sword in the panel protecting the side of my leg.

"Tell me what I want or you'll be minus a limb in 5...4...3...2..." Lockdown started counting down. I gritted my teeth, and I felt the chain just dig into my armor when an alarm sounded and Lockdown looked up.

"ENEMY APPROACHING, ENERGY SIGNAL HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED AS DECEPTICON IN ORIGIN." a female robotic voice said.

"What the slag?" Lockdown said, going out the door. It began to shut, but I held it open a crack with processor over matter and slid out after I grabbed my jet pack off the floor. Holding a hand tightly over my wound, I hid behind some crates just as an extremely loud crash was followed by a portion of the ceiling caving in. To my surprise, Blitzwing wearing his icy personality dropped through.

"Vhere are you, Lockdown... Ve have something to discuss..." Blitzwing said. Lockdown stepped out of the shadows, his weapons equipped.

"Hey Blitzy, long time no see." Lockdown said. Blitzwing switched to his angry personality and stepped towards Lockdown, pointing a finger at him.

"**Ju liar! Ju stripped me of my mods and sold me to Sentinel a few weeks ago! I vill pound ju into scrap metal!" **Blitzwing said.

"Hey, where's that big friend of yours? Usually wherever Blitzwing goes..." Lockdown was saying as a huge portion of the wall exploded and Lugnut stepped through. Lockdown sneered. "...Lugnut isn't far behind." he finished. Blitzwing spun to his crazy personality, hopping over to Lugnut.

"Ooh! Dere ju are! I thought ju vere not coming for a nanoclick!" Blitzwing said, laughing insanely. Lugnut hit him over the head and he switched back to his icy personality.

"Why are you two clowns here?" Lockdown said.

"Our glorious master has commanded we find the relics of the Primes so he may raise his loyal undead army to destroy those accursed Autobots, especially that new techno-organic. How dare she cause my master pain and nearly take him offline, she will pay!" Lugnut ranted. Lockdown rolled his optics.

"So you're here for intel, correct?" Lockdown said. Blitzwing grinned slightly, stepping towards Lugnut and arming his cannons.

"No, ve got what ve wanted from Swindle; this is more of a...personal matter." Blitzwing said, taking aim. "Ju see, ve don't really appreciate ju turning us in, so ve thought ve'd settle the score."

Blitzwing fired his ice cannons at Lockdown, who easily dodged. In close quarters though, there wasn't much space to evade him and Lugnut as well. I backed silently into the shadows, watching the fight but staying out of view. Lugnut landed a heavy blow on Lockdown, knocking him off balance. Blitzwing struck him to the floor, planting his foot on Lockdown's back. Switching to his crazy personality, he let Lockdown raise himself off the floor a little before shoving him back down. Lockdown tried this repeatedly before giving up.

"Jes, dat's it, work it, feel ze burn!" Blitzwing said, cackling. Switching to his angry personality, he let go of Lockdown just as he armed his fire cannons.

**"Or I vill do it for ju!"** he said, firing and engulfing Lockdown in flames. I looked away when he started screaming in agony. Blitzwing didn't take him offline, but Lockdown's armor was severely charred and he struggled to get up, resorting to bargaining when Lugnut aimed an explosive at him.

"You know all the mods I have on this ship? Take your pick, whichever ones you want." Lockdown pleaded. I was surprised the bounty hunter would resort to begging, but I knew where this was going.

"I'm listening..." Blitzwing said.

"I've also got a prisoner, that techno-organic you wanted. She's a cyber-ninja though, and pretty feisty. Though the fight should be almost gone from her now, she's wounded." Lockdown said. Blitzwing nodded to Lugnut to stand watch, and Blitzwing crossed over to the room where I had been trapped. Opening it and peering in, he whirled around with his angry personality.

**"Ju are a bigger liar zan Ramjet! Dere's nothing in dere!" **Blitzwing raged. He fired once at Lockdown, hitting him squarely and I saw his optics flicker out, though he wasn't dead. Lugnut nudged Blitzwing, who changed back into his icy personality.

"There's nothing here that we need, let's go." Lugnut said. Blitzwing nodded and they both jumped out of the hole on the side of the ship before transforming and flying away. I stepped out of the shadows, putting something together. If Lugnut and Blitzwing had attacked, we were most likely on Earth. I unsheathed my sword, walking carefully up to him with one hand still over my injured stomach. Reaching out, I touched him with the tip of my blade and his optics remained off. Stepping closer, I had just lowered my sword when his optics flashed on and he rammed his chainsaw mod into my thigh, tearing through the thin armor and slicing through my circuitry.

I cried out, stumbling back as Lockdown got to his feet. His armor was blackened, melted away in a few places, and I saw something I wouldn't have ever expected. I could see parts of the Autobot's symbol on his chest, Blitzwing's fire must have had burned away the armor he covered it with.

"You used to be a good guy?" I said, gritting my teeth and forcing myself to use my injured leg. Lockdown scowled.

"Yeah, it's the one part of my life I regret." Lockdown said, lunging at me with both of his weapons. He slammed his claw into the floor where I had been standing a second before, once again making the mistake of getting his hook stuck. I circled behind him quickly, and, taking my chance, stabbed my sword through his back where I knew it was fatal. I yanked out my blade, sheathing it and standing back from Lockdown. He had just freed his hook when I'd stabbed him, but now he fell sideways and rolled onto his back. A pool of energon was seeping quickly from under his back and he turned his head to me.

"Never thought this was the way I was gonna go down. Fighting yeah, but I didn't ever think I'd be taken offline by a techno-organic... Here kid, you deserve this, wear it, display it, whatever. Take it as a sign you finally beat me." Lockdown said, detaching his hook mod and tossing it at my feet. "By the way, the ship has been circling Lake Erie; you'll be good to go..." Lockdown said, his optics dimming before going out completely. His body turned a dull gray color and I knew he was truly offline. As a sort of final respect for the bugger, I blasted the controls in the ship, causing it to begin to crash. On the way out, I grabbed Lockdown's hook like he told me to.

Still high in the air, I jumped out of the hole on the side of the ship and activated my jet pack. Careening towards the lights of Detroit, I could see drops of energon dripping from my stomach and leg. I wasn't seriously injured, but I made a mental note to either have Sari use her key or have Ratchet fix me up. Surprisingly, when I made it to the plant, the Elite Guard ship was in the courtyard.

_Why would they be here...? Maybe because they're looking for me?_ I thought. Deactivating my jets when I got close to the ground, I laid a hand over my stomach and limped quietly into the plant. Everyone was in the living room, including Jazz, the twins, Blurr and, ugh, Sentinel. Sari was crying and the twins wouldn't lift their gaze from the floor. I felt bad; they probably thought it was their fault that I got kidnapped. Even Prowl looked upset, somewhat. Sari sniffed, her voice breaking as she tried to talk.

"Maybe she's still okay...Lockdown just takes mods right? All she'd be missing is her sword and blasters..." Sari choked. Blurr stated the obvious, though a bit more sympathetically than he usually would talk.

"It'shighlyunlikelythatHayliwoul dbeabletoescapeLockdownagain , hewouldprobablytakeherofflin eforblowinguphisshipthelastt ime." Blurr said. Before anyone got too sad, I limped up a few more steps and cleared my throat, tossing Lockdown's hook into the center of the group. Sari looked up, her face priceless, and she vaulted off the couch where she had been sitting and hug attacked me. I stumbled with her weight, especially because of my bad leg, but I hugged her back as well. Looking up, I saw Sentinel pick up Lockdown's hook and gape at me.

"How did you...that's not possible!" Sentinel stuttered.

"I had a little help from Blitzwing and Lugnut, but Lockdown fought until the end. He gave me that as proof he was truly offline." I said. Prowl carefully took Lockdown's claw, examining it.

"She's telling the truth, this is one of Lockdown's primary mods, he'd never give it up if he were alive." Prowl said, looking it over intently. He stopped over a spot and looked at me. "Is that energon that's still on this?" Prowl asked. I pulled away form Sari and looked at him, removing my hand from over my stomach.

"Yeah, it's probably mine. Lockdown managed to impale me when I was trying to escape. He also managed to cut my leg with that stupid chainsaw of his." I said. Sari immediately yanked off her key, holding it near my chest so the panel opened up. Unfortunately, the key wouldn't change shape to match the twisted 'T' shape in my chest and Sari looked at it frustratedly.

"Stupid key! Why don't you help my friend when she needs it?!" Sari said, frustratedly putting it back around her neck. I looked at her sympathetically.

"It's okay, I think I just need a patch job, Lockdown didn't hit anything major." I said, looking up at Ratchet. He looked me over and motioned me to the medi-lab. I limped past the Autobots, and the Jet twins stopped me, staring at the floor as they spoke at the same time.

"We're sorry." they said. I looked at them with sympathy, they looked guilty like they had accidently killed a pet goldfish or something. Wrapping my arms around them both, I gave them a comforting hug and stepped back.

"It's not your fault. Actually, I think its better you were far enough away. Lockdown probably wouldn't have hesitated to offline you both to get to me." I said. The twins looked at each other, evidently somewhat shocked I would hug them, and gave me a faint smile.

"Thank you, we thought you would be upset with us." Jetfire said. I looked at him and laughed.

"Why in the world would I be mad at you? It's not your job to protect me; besides, I'm pretty good at taking care of myself." I said. Jetstorm looked at me doubtfully, glancing at my wounds. I looked down at myself as well and started limping towards the medi-lab again. As an afterthought, I turned and pointed at Sentinel.

"In case you think otherwise, I'm practically one of you. My structure is entirely Cybertronian, I'm armed, and heck, I even bleed the same crap as you do." I said, gesturing to the glowing blue energon that seeped from my wounds. Ratchet stuck his head out of the medi-lab and called to me.

"Speaking of which, get in here so I can repair you; you're making a mess of the floor." Ratchet said jokingly. I looked down to see a few energon drops on the ground and then limped into the medi-lab. Taking off my jet pack, Ratchet helped me onto one of the tables and I sat on the edge of it as he started to examine my wounds.

"Lockdown said my stomach wound isn't fatal, and I don't think he hit anything major in my leg, though it does hurt like hell..." I said. Prowl walked in and stood on the other side of the table out of Ratchet's way. Carefully, Ratchet felt around the wound on my stomach, though I still winced.

"Did it go all the way through? I don't think he hit anything too major, but I understand if you're sore." Ratchet said. I shifted on the table, my back as well as my stomach hurt.

"It might have, my back hurts too." I said. I felt a gentle touch on my back and looked around to see Prowl. He showed Ratchet his hand, which was smeared in my energon.

"Yes, Lockdown's hook went all the way through you." Prowl said, wiping his hand off on a rag. Ratchet scanned my abdomen, and satisfyingly put down the scanner.

"You'll be fine, I can't believe I'm saying this but thanks to Lockdown's precision you aren't seriously hurt." Ratchet said, leaning down to examine my leg. I grimaced as he turned it side to side.

"Your leg is going to be okay as well, it just looks worse because the armor around it is shredded. Once I get it cleaned up I think it'll heal quickly. You're as fast a healer as Prowl, which is saying something. Ratchet took out a small torch and started soldering the hole closed in my abdomen. I decided to just grin and bear it and gritted my teeth when it hurt. Ratchet moved onto my leg, welding the shredded edges of my armor back together and stopping the bleeding easily. I tested my leg when he was done, it was sore, but I could manage without too bad of a limp.

When he said I could go, I slid off the table, landing with most of my weight on my uninjured leg. Prowl offered to help me walk but I waved him off. Making my way back to the living room, I saw Sentinel and the Elite guard consulting with Optimus. The other Autobots, not including Prowl and Ratchet, must have been on scout duty or something because I didn't hear them anywhere in the plant. I overheard part of the conversation between the two Primes.

"I don't care, she needs to be recruited, and we can't afford to be one soldier short on the battlefield. Come on Optimus, she's slagged three Decepticons all by herself, three for Spark's sake!" Sentinel was saying. Optimus shook his head.

"It would be her choice alone, not mine. And by the way, she's my soldier, and an excellent one at that. I don't give a nanobot's tailpipe about who you want on your team, it's up to her whether she joins the Elite Guard or not." Optimus said.


	25. Chapter 25

**AN: I feel the need to put this in here. I've gotten a couple of reviews stating I copied this story from another author and it must be just a very strange coincidence. I can assure you, I thought this was my own work, if someone has published something similar, I apologize for the likeness but I was not aware that mine was akin to another fic.**

_Whaaaaaat?! _I thought to myself, backing out of the room. I ran straight into Prowl, and he looked down at me.

"Is something wrong?" he asked. I glanced back at the living room, I could still hear them talking but know I couldn't make out what they were saying.

"I think Sentinel wants to recruit me to the Elite Guard... but Optimus is saying it would be my choice, not his or Sentinel's." I said.

"Are you going to go?" Prowl asked. I shook my head in confusion.

"I-I don't know. The opportunity is amazing, and most of the Elite guard are my friends, but I'd be leaving behind friends here. I'd be leaving you..." I said. Prowl faintly smiled, giving me a quick hug.

"I'm sure they'll let you come home after a while, and between you and me, I think you're one of the only techno-organics that Sentinel can tolerate to be around." Prowl said. I sighed, nodding, and walked with a faint limp into the living room. The attention turned to me and I held up a hand right as Sentinel was about to speak.

"I'll go, but are the conditions negotiable?" I asked. Sentinel leaned down, though he still looked like he was edgy around me.

"How so?" he asked.

"I'll be on call, but I request to be stationed on Earth with Optimus unless help is seriously needed." I said. Sentinel talked with Jazz and Blurr for a moment, then turned back to me.

"Agreed, but on one condition; you assist in training the academy bots and young cyber-ninjas on Cybertron. You've already more than earned your Wings of Honor, which you will receive once you get there." Sentinel said.

"Okay I'll help, but what are the 'Wings of Honor?'" I asked. Blurr tapped the extensions on the Autobot's symbol on his chest.

"It'samedalaswellasarankthatiden tifiesyouasoneoftheEliteGuar d." he explained. I sighed.

"So, when do we leave?" I asked. Jazz spoke up, smiling slightly.

"Whenever you're ready. Feel free to say goodbye, though you are gonna be coming back. It might be best to get going before Sari gets back th..." Jazz was saying right as Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Sari walked in.

"Where are you going Hayli?" Sari asked. I looked at her sheepishly.

"I'm gonna be gone for a while, I'm joining the Elite Guard and going to Cybertron." I said. Sari wailed.

"Nooo! You can't go, I'll miss you!" she said, throwing her arms around me and not letting go. I peeled her off of me and held her at arm's length.

"Don't worry, I'm coming back, I'll just be helping out for a little bit." I said. Sari had a sour face on, and I made her look at me.

"Would you mind looking after Stella? I know you like her, and she loves playing with you and Bumblebee." I said. Sari brightened a tad, looking at me.

"Sure, she'll be spoiled rotten while you're gone." Sari said. I nodded, looking down and seeing Stella rubbing against me.

"Speak of the devil..." I said, picking her up. Sentinel backed away a few paces, a disgusted look on his face.

"What is that thing?!" he said. I grinned, stroking Stella.

"It's a cat, furthermore she's my pet." I said. Sentinel still looked like a spider was crawling up his arm and I sighed. Jazz laughed.

"Chill SP, it ai'nt gonna hurt you." Jazz said. I handed Stella over to Sari, waving my goodbyes to everyone, and followed the Elite Guard as they filed out of the plant. Jazz waited for me at the base of the ramp to the ship, and I went up it quickly with him following close behind. He tapped on my shoulder.

"If you wanna go take a stasis nap that's fine. You've had a long day, get some rest. I'll come get you when we're there." Jazz said. I shrugged.

"I'm not exactly tired, but I suppose getting some sleep wouldn't be a bad thing." I said. Jazz nodded, heading for the main room, and I went down the hall to the bunks. For the moment the room was empty, so I chose the bed I had slept in before and crawled onto the bunk. I stretched out on my side, my injured leg positioned carefully, and I used my arm as a pillow. I closed my optics, drifting off.

...

_Lockdown sneered as he closed in on me. I was backed into a corner, sword held protectively. Lockdown raised his chainsaw again and again, each time chipping away a bit more of my sword. Finally, it shattered and I dropped the hilt, pressing myself back against the wall. Lockdown sneered, revving his chainsaw mod. He drew back and slashed down at me..._

I sat bolt upright with a gasp. Jazz was next to the bed, he must have woken me from my horrible dream.

"Are you okay?" he asked. I nodded, getting out of bed.

"Bad dream, Lockdown was trying to kill me... You woke me up right when he was about to finish me." I said.

"At least you know it was just a nightmare. Well, anyway, we're here. We should get going, you've got a ceremony to attend." I looked at him questioningly, then remembered why I was even with them in the first place.

"Oh, yeah." I said. I stretched, starting to follow Jazz out of the room. My stomach was sore and my leg was stiff but it wasn't anything that would hinder me. I could even walk without a limp now. I walked to the main room next to Jazz, and I saw the others had gone, leaving the ramp down on the ship. Jazz transformed, opening the door of his car mode.

"Need a lift?" he said. I shook my head.

"I think I'll fly myself this time." I said. Activating my jet pack, I flew out after Jazz, following him because I didn't really know where I was going. He drove to the capital, and I flew close on his tail so I didn't lose him in traffic. He pulled into a sort of courtyard that had a stage set up in the middle of it. Quite a few bots were milling around, and Sentinel was up on the stage giving an introduction. He spotted me in the crowd and motioned me up.

I have never been good with crowds, so I just ducked my head and picked my way through the bots, pretty much all of whom were taller than me. They seemed to notice I was the one all the commotion was about, and they stepped away, giving me a clear path to the stage. I tried to walk evenly up the stairs and over to Sentinel.

I shifted uneasily from foot to foot while Sentinel gave a short speech on what I had done to deserve this honor, blah, blah, blah. Honestly, I didn't hear most of what he said. He turned to me, holding an odd device in his hand.

"It is with this I bestow your Wings of Honor, display them proudly and continue the excellent deeds you've been doing." Sentinel said. A beam shot out of the thing in his hand, tracing down my chest. It seemed to transfer a sort of image, because now the Autobot's symbol on my chest was modified into what the Elite Guard wore. The crowd clapped and I dipped my head in modesty.

After the ceremony, the crowd dispersed and Sentinel motioned Jazz over.

"Do you think she'd be better off training the cyber-ninja recruits instead of the Elite Guard trainees?" Sentinel asked Jazz, who shrugged.

"Dunno, SP. I think she'll be a good teacher regardless." Jazz said. I spoke up.

"In my opinion, I'd think I'd be better at training the cyber-ninjas. Gymnastics would definitely come in handy with the training, and my processor over matter isn't too bad either. Besides, I don't know any of the formalities that goes into the military side of things, I can't salute, stand at attention, whatever." I said. Sentinel looked from me to Jazz.

"I guess it's decided then, though you should drop in to the training camp to give my recruits some sparring lessons." Sentinel said. I nodded in agreement. Jazz transformed, and I started up my jet pack, attempting to salute Sentinel as I took off. I heard him call up at me.

"Close, make sure your servo is level an..." he was saying before I got out of earshot. I flew high, keeping Jazz in my sights as he cruised back to the cyber-ninja training facility.

...

I dropped to the ground right outside the main door where Jazz was waiting for me. Walking in I glanced back and smiled.

"It almost feels like home already." I said. Jazz chuckled.

"Come on, let's have you meet the recruits." Jazz said. I followed him through the building, coming to the large training room where about a dozen young bots were assembled along with Warpath. Warpath bowed to Jazz before backing up to the wall. Jazz introduced me.

"This here is Hayli, I'm sure you've heard of her. She's going to be visiting for a while and I want you guys to listen to what she says 'cuz she's gonna be training you as well." Jazz said. Murmurs spread through the trainees and I tried to look confident.

"Any questions?" Jazz asked the young bots. Almost everyone's hand shot up and I looked at Jazz. He nudged me, speaking quietly with a smile.

"Looks like you've got some fans." Jazz said. I grinned. Jazz turned to his recruits.

"Are there any questions that involve Hayli as a teacher?" Jazz specified. Most everyone's servos lowered, but there was one bot that raised his. I immediately recognized him as the one who had rammed his staff into my chest at my cyber-ninja exam. I reluctantly pointed at him to ask his question.

"How long are you staying and do I have to train with you?" the young bot asked. Jazz sighed.

"Just for that, I'm assigning you to train with Hayli every day. You are also to treat her with as much respect as you do me, got it?" I glanced at Jazz, shrugging.

"So when do I start?" I asked.

"How about right now?" he said. "A few need agility work, some need sparring practice, and most of them need work in P over M." Jazz said. "Why don't you just demonstrate what you can do first, show off a little, you dig?" I nodded, going to the far corner of the room as the younger bots cleared off the floor to stand by the walls.

_Don't screw up..._ I thought, then sprinted across the floor, vaulting high into the air and doing a few rapid back flips. I landed, planted my feet, and this time did a twisting front flip, landing on my hands and flipping hands over feet to the far corner of the room again. I reversed, doing the same thing backwards until I reached the other end of the floor. Standing, I sprinted to the center of the floor, jumped, and triple front flipped before landing on one hand and balancing.

The trainees clapped enthusiastically, and I brought my feet over my head and stood up, smiling slightly. Jazz motioned the unruly trainee to come forward.

"I want you to spar with her, unarmed this time." Jazz said. The young bot grumbled, taking his staff off of his back and tossing it to the floor. I unsheathed my sword and laid it at Jazz's feet, walking to the center of the floor where the trainee was waiting. He bowed, and I did the same. We then circled each other looking for weaknesses. I admit my weakness was a bit obvious. I still had visible wounds from Lockdown, and my leg sort of ached from the gymnastics I had just done.

He came at me first, throwing a punch that I easily ducked below. I didn't hit him hard, but I jabbed my fist into his armor with a solid thud. He stumbled back, glaring. He jumped at me again, his attacks much more rapid and efficient. I dodged most of them, but was having to block him. Finally, he lost his patience and tried to nail me with his foot. I grabbed his leg and flipped him over my head. Admirably, he landed and rolled, coming up on his feet.

"Nice save." I commented. He faced me again, circling, and I turned to keep him in my sight. He charged at me, leaping into the air and aiming a kick at me. I shoved him away, and he used my arm as a springboard to attack again. I grabbed his foot in my hand and dropped him to the ground, leaning straight backward at a punch he aimed at my face. He was getting angry, I could tell. The next time I blocked his punches he grabbed my arm and jabbed me in the injured part of my stomach before launching a kick that caught my damaged leg. I hissed in a breath, quickly grabbing his arm with my free hand and swiping his feet out from under him. I pinned him to the floor with my foot, a hand over my abdomen and favoring my leg.

Jazz rushed over to reprimand the trainee but I held up my hand in a 'just a second' gesture. The bot was trying to push me off but I held him down harder.

"What exactly is your problem, huh? You can't beat me fair and square so you try and cripple me, is that it?" I said.

"I take what opportunities are given. You shouldn't have fought while you were injured. Besides, what kind of a ninja bot are you; you keep getting hurt all the time." the trainee said. I leaned down, in his face while the other recruits were watching me in awe.

"For your information, I was impaled and stabbed in the leg by Lockdown and still managed to take him offline. I do what has to be done to defend myself and my friends, I don't fight like a Decepticon. Wise up or I won't go easy on you the next time." I growled before releasing him. He grumbled, reluctant to get up, and I held out my hand. He hit it aside and got to his feet, muttering as he returned to an empty spot by the wall. I retrieved my sword from where I had left it, and Jazz got my attention.

"Are you okay?" he asked. I nodded.

"I'm fine, what exactly is wrong with that kid?" I asked. Jazz shook his head.

"I don't really know, but how about a demonstration in processor over matter to end the day?" Jazz said. I shrugged.

"Sure." I said. I walked to the center of the floor again, dropping into a sitting position and laying my sword in front of me. I took a deep breath, closing my eyes and blocking out the small noises around me. Humming a low note, I focused and raised my sword a few feet above my head, spinning it slowly. Murmurs and whispers of amazement rippled through the young bots and I opened my eyes. They started clapping for me again and I allowed my concentration to break. I caught my sword as it fell and stood, sheathing it.


	26. Chapter 26

"Here you go, it's not much, but at least you only have two roomies. Us guys have to cram into the other bunk room. Well, good night, Hayli, see you in the morning. Training starts at 0600 hours, try to be up by then." Jazz said, starting to leave.

"Sleep tight, don't let the nanobots bite." I joked. Jazz grinned, waving as he walked down the hallway. The other two femmes I was sharing the room with filed in tentatively.

"We get to share a room with you? Are you sure you don't mind?" one of them said. I laughed.

"Of course I don't mind. Did you two have certain bunks? I didn't want to take the ones you've been sleeping in." I said. The two girls looked at each other, pointing to two beds along the far wall. I smiled.

"Thanks." I said, going to the bunk closest to the door. I climbed into the bed and the two femmes went to their respective bunks. "See you in the morning." I said. The girls smiled at me and I stretched out on my bunk, giving in to sleep.

...

I stumbled back a half step after one of the femme trainees managed to land a solid kick on me.

"Good job." I congratulated her, and she lit up. I glanced at the door to see Jazz walk in.

"Hey, what's up?" I said, walking over to him.

"Nothing much, I just thought that you might want to head home later today." Jazz said, a half smile on his face.

"Really?" I asked.

"Sure, you have been here for close to two weeks. I thought I'd take you to the academy bot training camp and then I'd escort you home. That sound good?" Jazz said. I nodded, a smile across my face. Jazz motioned me out the door, and I waved goodbye to the two femmes that I had shared a room with.

I fired up my jet pack, following Jazz to the outskirts of the city where there was a massive walled structure painted in even intervals with the Elite Guard symbol. I flew over the wall and dropped to the ground, waiting for Jazz. He walked through the gate, and I followed him to the heart of the camp where a few lines of bots were standing at attention as Sentinel addressed them.

Sentinel glanced our way as we walked in before ordering the soldiers in training.

"At ease." Sentinel said in a clipped tone. The bots relaxed their posture but remained standing in formation. Sentinel motioned me forward and introduced me. I looked up at him.

"Is there anything in particular you want me to do?" I asked. Sentinel nodded.

"A demonstration in using your blasters as well as some sparring practice with the recruits would be sufficient." he said. He stepped aside, gesturing to some targets crudely stamped with the Decepticon insignia. I equipped my blasters, hoping I didn't mess up because I relied on my sword more than my hands.

Aiming, I looked better than I really was when my shot took out two targets at once and I didn't miss any. Sentinel looked surprised too. Shaking his head, he motioned two of his soldiers forward.

"Okay you two, I want you to try and beat the cyber-ninja. Go!" Sentinel said. I assumed we were supposed to be armed, because one bot equipped a weapon similar to Bumblebee's stingers and the other equipped a bladed weapon that was fit to cover his arm. Making a mental note not to let the one with a blaster out of my sight, I leaped forward. These bots were much easier to fight than the cyber-ninja trainees. The soldiers here relied more on brute strength than anything, and they weren't nearly as fast as I was.

The one bot charged up a blast from in front of me right as the one behind me drew back to slash at my armor. I jumped aside as they released their attacks at the same time. They both ended up on the ground. One of the trainees got a nasty scratch on his armor and the other was sparking with electricity from being blasted.

Sentinel started laughing, and I noticed a few of the soldiers snickering as well. Being a good sport, I helped them both up.

"Nice try, keep training." I said. They nodded in thanks and hurried back to their place in line. Sentinel turned to his troops.

"Dismissed." he said. The troops started to meander away and Sentinel turned to me. "I suppose you aren't too bad of a bot, you should come back sometime, really teach my troops to fight..." he trailed off. I smiled.

"Any time, I'm happy to oblige." I said.

...

The space bridge dumped me out not where I was expecting. It must have been a glitch, but I sighed as the portal closed behind me. I activated my jet pack, taking off and getting up high to find my bearings. I started in one direction, glancing down and realizing with a start what was going on below me. I had flown directly over the Decepticon's base, and through the hole in the rock that was the ceiling I could see Megatron and his underlings putting something together.

I dropped out of the sky, silently landing and peering down. When Lugnut moved away, I saw that they had somehow collected the relics of the Primes and had linked them together. I realized that Megatron was going to go through with his twisted plot of raising a zombie army and I patched in to Optimus and the rest on my commlink.

"Guys, Megatron has all the relics somehow, he's about to bring back his undead army. Backup would be lovely!" I said. Optimus replied back.

"We're on our way, do not engage." Optimus said. I disconnected, looking down again. They weren't going to get here in time, the relics were already starting to charge. I bit my lip, contemplating, but knowing the final choice.

_Do I follow Optimus's order and wait until it's too late, or do I sacrifice myself to save the world... Hmm, tough decision! _ I thought. I didn't want to die, or be a hero for that matter, but I took a deep breath and jumped through the hole in the ceiling. I drew my sword and equipped my helmet and face mask, blocking shots as I ran for the relics. A huge blast was charging up, I could see the relics connected to a sort of satellite dish, probably to send the signal as far as possible. I skidded to a halt in front of the relics and equipped my blasters, charging up a shot and aiming at the relics.

Megatron scowled, lowering his weapon as he motioned his troops to do the same. I glanced back at the relics, the charge was ever increasing and it wouldn't be long until their power was released. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and fired.

In the nanosecond before my world exploded, I thought my life was supposed to flash before my eyes. Oddly enough, a picture of Prowl smiling at me was what I was holding onto as the blast erupted.


	27. Chapter 27

I sped alongside Bumblebee as we went off road to Hayli's aid. A huge explosion then rocked the ground and I transformed to better keep my balance. From here, I could see the mushroom cloud rising into the sky.

_Hayli...no..._ I thought, staring in disbelief. I ran to the source of the explosion, even as Optimus called after me. The others weren't far behind, and I saw Megatron, Blitzwing, and Lugnut rise out of the smoke and take off. I got to the detonation site, the smoke already drifting off in the breeze. Much of the roof of the Decepticon's base had caved in, though the inside was still mostly intact. I dropped quickly down into the rubble, searching.

"Prowl, get back here, we don't know how stable it is down there!" Optimus called. I ignored him, looking everywhere. I saw bits of charred objects on the floor, and picking a fragment up, I realized that they had been the relics that were supposed to be locked away on Cybertron. I looked up, and saw Shockwave, who was offline and crushed under a slab of rock. He must have been left behind since he couldn't fly. I was about to give up looking when I found her.

She was lying partially on her side, scorched in a few places and her leg was bent at an awkward angle. Her sword was still in her hand and her blasters were equipped, though useless now. I could already tell she was offline, her once light blue armor was now a dull gray and her optics were dark. Gently, I picked her up, and she rested limply in my arms, looking almost serene if it weren't for the fact that she would have been injured.

I looked down at her in grief. The one person I had wholly and truly had feelings for was now gone. Carrying her carefully, I made my way back to the rest of the team, keeping my emotions in check for the sake of the others. As soon as the others realized I was carrying her, they all saddened and stood around me.

"Oh Hayli..." Optimus said, looking sadly at her offline body in my arms. Sari burst into tears.

"No! She can't be gone, she can't! Why does she have to be dead?!" Sari wailed. I spoke softly.

"You heard what she said, Megatron was going to raise his undead army, she once again put the greater good first and saved us, as well as probably the world. Not to mention she took Shockwave offline in the process." I said. Sari sniffed, yanking off her key. Ratchet stopped her.

"Kid, let it go. I'm sure she's happy where she is right now. You'll just have to accept what happened..." Ratchet said somberly. Bumblebee spoke up.

"But what if she went to the Pit?" he asked. Optimus shook his head.

"There is no way that she would go anywhere other than the Realm of All Sparks, she did nothing but good while she was alive." Optimus said.

"We should probably contact the Elite Guard and give a report, as well as arrange a ceremony for her." Ratchet said. I looked down at Hayli's offline form again, emotions boiling inside of me.

...

Hayli was given a full hero's ceremony; I never left her side until her body was finally taken to the Fallen Warriors crypt. I went through the days at the plant in a daze, not realizing until now how much I relied on her presence. Whenever I tried to clear my mind and meditate, all I found was myself thinking of her.

I sighed, not even the birds that visited my room were cheering me up. As a way to keep her in my mind, I started caring for Hayli's pet, and eventually she warmed up to me as much as she did Bumblebee and Sari. I just couldn't get Hayli out of my processor, I was reminded of her in almost everything I saw. In my room I was reminded of when I first found her in my tree, and I could almost see her walking past my door.

Getting to my feet, I walked down the hall to the living room. The rest of the team still grieved, but not as much as I did inwardly. Rarely did I let my emotions show, and usually when I did it was only a small smile.

_Hayli was always good at brining out my lighter side..._ I thought. Shaking my head, I tried to push away the thought.

It had been almost two weeks since she died, and instead of the pain getting easier, every passing day was worse to be with her gone. Most everyone else had moved on for the most part, but I couldn't help that my sense of loss was hindering my usefulness to the team. Optimus had noticed this as well, and had relieved me of duty until I felt able to continue.

I got flashbacks again as I walked into the living room. I could see Hayli playing Twister and beating Bumblebee, I saw her limping back through the door after she offlined Lockdown. I wished so badly that this was the case and she'd be coming back, but she couldn't.

I shook away the flashback, transformed, and sped out of the plant. I wanted to be alone, and headed for the woods. I kept remembering her, simply not able to get her out of my processor. I got a flash of when she was hit by the truck and I didn't save her in time; to this day I still haven't forgiven myself. I swerved off the road when I got to the woods, driving deep into the trees before transforming back.

Looking around, I got another flashback of Hayli falling out of a tree into my arms. I slumped in despair, sitting down on the forest floor, and buried my face in my hands.

"Why? Why did you have to go be a slagging hero and leave me all alone?" I said out loud. Sighing, I closed my optics and tried to meditate. I kept thinking of her, but my mind drifted before a thought flashed across my processor.

_You could bring her back..._ I thought. I shook my head. I couldn't do that to her, could I? I wasn't one to make irrational decisions, and I knew my resurrecting her would make things complicated to those who thought she was dead.

_ This is incredibly selfish... But the others miss her too, right? I'd be doing a kindness..._ I conflictingly thought. I went back and forth on it for a while, until finally just telling myself that I couldn't be without her. I got to my feet, my joints aching, and it was now pitch dark outside. Transforming, I flicked on my headlights and drove quickly back to the highway. I had a plan set in my mind, and I was pushing myself to do it before better judgment prevailed.

I transformed before entering the plant, walking silently. It appeared everyone had gone to bed and I crept to Sari's room. She was sprawled on her back in her makeshift tire bed, asleep. I crossed the room to her, leaning down over her bed. Carefully, I took the key from around her neck and slid it over her head. She stirred, but I had what I wanted and went out to the living room again.

I walked swiftly but quietly to the control panel, programming a space bridge to appear in the courtyard and transport me to Cybertron. I programmed it to close as soon as I went through so no one could follow me. I went outside, the blue shimmering portal waiting for me, and I stepped through.

...

I transformed on the other side, making sure I kept a hold on Sari's key. My thoughts raced and I became unsure as to whether I should go through with this.

_What if I'm caught? What if the key doesn't work?_ I thought as I sped towards the Fallen Heroes crypt. I didn't know where they had put her, I would have to hack into the database, but that wouldn't be difficult.

I held Sari's key tightly in my servo, creeping up to the doorway. It opened automatically and I slipped inside. A bot at the front desk looked up but I slid into the shadows before I was spotted. He looked up, saw nothing, and went back to the paperwork he was working on.

"Stupid door, need to get it fixed..." he said to himself. The computerized database was right behind him, I just needed to get to it. Activating my holo-projector, I duplicated an image of myself and sent it running down the hall, right in front of the bot.

"What the...? Hey you, get back here, visiting hours are over!" he called. Just according to plan, he left his desk and ran after the hologram that I had already deactivated. I stepped quickly to the computer, searching for where she was being kept.

_Floor 15, chamber 28... _ I thought when I saw the directions next to her name. I darted to the wall, out of sight when the secretary came back. He grumbled, going back to work as I slipped silently down the hall. Most of this crypt was underground, and I used Sari's key to bypass the security lock on the door leading to the stairs. Every floor, the stairway opened to a long hallway with evenly spaced openings. In each of these was an offline Autobot warrior lying on a uniformly shaped stone platform.

I descended the stairs quickly, stopping at the floor marked '15' above the opening in the stairway. I walked briskly down the hall, glancing back and forth at the faded, black Cybertronian numbers. Most of this floor was empty, only a few dead Autobots were resting on this level. I turned and stopped when I reached where Hayli lay.

The undertaker bots had done a good job of cleaning up the scorch marks on her armor and they had bent her leg back into a position resembling normality, though I could tell they had bothered to set the break. She was resting on her back, her hands laced over her stomach. I also saw that her sword was held under her hands and laid along the length of her body. I laid my hand on top of hers; it was cold, whereas if she were alive it would be radiating a soft heat much like a human.

Taking Sari's key, I hesitated, holding it above her chest.

_ There's no going back now..._ I thought, moving the key closer. It began to glow, and the panel over her Spark chamber slid open. The key glowed brighter, changing shape to match the gap in her chest. I placed the key, and a bright light enveloped her. Squinting, I still saw the color return to her armor and her Spark started beating again. I retrieved the key from her chest and stood straighter, expectant.

Hayli lay still for a moment before her optics flickered on, her gaze landed on me. I expected her to look overjoyed, happy, maybe a bit confused, but the expression on her face looked like a combination of sadness and anger. Her voice cracked as she spoke.

"Prowl, no...What have you done?" she choked out. I stiffened, Yoketron said those exact words to me when I had tried to save him. She grimaced, sitting up and instinctively placing her sword back on her hip. She moved one leg over the side of the slab of stone, but her injured leg she seemed to handle more gingerly. She sat for a moment on the side of the table, seeming to be getting her bearings, and she stood. I saw her stagger a step like her balance was off and she reached to steady herself on the wall.

I moved towards her, but she held up her hand to stop me. I looked at her confused, and all she did was shake her head. Turning away from me, she headed towards the exit, walking with a noticeable limp. I was confused, shouldn't the key have healed her as well as bring her back? I followed her, but whenever I got too close she would try to speed up to avoid me, though she was having trouble navigating the stairs because of her compromised balance and heavy limp. One of these times, she tripped and her injured leg buckled. I rushed forward and caught her, but she roughly shoved me away. I stood back, hurt.

"What's wrong? I brought you back from the dead, why are you pushing me away?" I asked. She didn't look at me, continuing to limp up the stairs.

"Not now, I'll tell you, just not now." Hayli said quietly. I followed as close behind her as she would allow and she made it to the main floor, though she stopped a moment and rested against the wall. I waited patiently, and she took a deep breath and continued on. The secretary bot looked up as she entered the lobby and did a double-take.

"How...how are you online? You're the one who they had the big hero's honorary ceremony for a few weeks ago, right?" the bot said. Hayli, didn't say anything at first, silently limping towards the door. She turned, facing the awestruck secretary.

"Yes, I'm the one you're thinking of. Ask him why I'm still here." Hayli said, pointing at me with a dark expression on her face. She spun on her good heel and walked out the door.

"So how is she still alive?" the bot asked. I merely held up the key in answer.

"Is there any way you can organize a space bridge back to Detroit from here?" I asked. The secretary shrugged.

"The computer has the ability, but I don't know the password that would give me access to the program." he said. I quickly moved him aside, and taking Sari's key, I put it into a control panel on the computer. The password instantly decoded and the space bridge program opened up. I programmed the coordinates and set the space bridge to open outside the crypt.

"Thanks for your kindness." I said. He nodded, and I hurried out the door, searching for Hayli. I just caught a glimpse of her stepping through the portal and I hurried to follow. Passing through the bridge, I was relieved it took us both to the woods outside Detroit that I had programmed it to. I didn't see Hayli, but it didn't take me long to find her up in a tree. She had climbed, probably with difficulty, into the upper branches and I had just leapt onto the first when she stayed me with her voice.

"Stop." she said. I complied, looking up at her.

"Will you tell me what's wrong? I thought you'd be happy, you're back with the team, your friends, why are you so upset with me?" I pleaded. She snapped her gaze down at me.

"Do you want to know, truly do you want to know?" she barked. I nodded, and she shifted on the branch she was on, leaning down towards me.

"I _was_ happy. I wasn't injured, wasn't tired, and most of all, I was human again. You know what else? My mom and Tess were there, I was with them, and we were perfectly content. Being dead was _bliss_ Prowl, and now it's gone! My family is gone again, and I'm all alone! And do you know, Prowl? It hurt. It hurt more than anything to be dragged back to my existence. You pulled me back from perfection into the world I had made a sacrifice to leave. I'm in pain right now too. I can't walk right, my balance won't get back to normal, and for some reason I can't move without a limp!" Hayli fumed, tears welling in her optics. "My mom and sister were reaching for me as I was torn from them once again, you have no idea how hard that was for the second time! What if there hadn't been some magical fucking key to bring me back? Hm? What would you have done? You would have eventually moved on just like everyone else, even if it hurt more to let me go." Hayli said through her teeth.

"I-I'm so sorry...I had no idea...It's just, I...I love you Hayli." I stuttered, feeling ashamed. She dropped from the tree, wincing when she hit the ground. She didn't look at me at first.

"I'm not going to will my Spark out like Yoketron did, or kill myself for that matter. Now that I'm here, I'll go back to being an Autobot... but I'm not going to forgive you for this, at least not for a long time." she said. Whirling; anger, frustration, and sadness mixed on her face.

"I hate you, Prowl! How could you have done this to me?! I was perfectly happy, and you've made me miserable! If you truly loved me you'd have let me go!" she burst out before turning and running the best she could. She no longer had her jet pack, the undertaker bots had removed it and it was too damaged to be used anyway.

I stood, stricken, and watched her leave. This was not what I had had in mind when I imagined having her back. I thought she would have been overwhelmed with joy, but this was the exact opposite. Not to mention the fact she hates me now...


	28. Chapter 28

I half-limped, half-ran to the highway, tears streaming down my face. How could Prowl have done this to me? I had been with my family again, and now I was separated. I had already told Prowl, but it physically hurt to return to my body. I hated that I couldn't find my balance; as a gymnast, without your sense of balance you are pretty much screwed.

I hoped Prowl would stay behind, and for the moment he seemed to be. I slowed, trying my best to walk without a limp as I wiped the tears from my face. My leg hurt, and was incredibly stiff, hence I couldn't really walk. I walked down the road into the city, dawn was just starting to peek over the skyscrapers and I headed for the base in no particular hurry. They'd probably all be confused but happy I was back. No one would understand how much I just wanted to go back to being dead. Imagine something like your beloved family dog getting stolen from you, and somehow, finally, it finds its way home and you're reunited again. With this in your mind, imagine you are walking down the road with said dog when you are kidnapped and the last thing you see is your dog looking at you pathetically as you're beaten with sledgehammers.

That's about what happened, though magnify it a few hundred times. I muttered a curse under my breath as I tripped once again because of my bad balance. The sun had edged up over the horizon and I saw a clock over a bank marking the time as 7:26. Sari would be up by now, and probably everyone else as well. I limped to the plant, hesitating before the door.

_Well this is a big sense of déjà vu... _I thought, thinking of when I had taken down Lockdown and been injured. Taking a deep breath, I went inside, bracing myself for the reactions. Sure enough, everyone was up, and conveniently in the living room. Simultaneous looks of 'where have you been,' fell on me because they must have been expecting Prowl. These looks suddenly turned into 'OMFG you're alive!' and Sari squealed, running to me with tears springing up in her eyes. I held up my hand and shook my head when she tried to hug me.

Stepping back, she looked at me, hurt.

"How are you alive? You've been offline for more than two weeks." Bumblebee said. I frowned as I sensed Prowl walk in behind me. I pointed over my shoulder without looking at him.

"Ask Prowl." I said. Ratchet looked up at him disapprovingly.

"Prowl, please tell me you didn't do what I think you did..." Ratchet said. Without a word, Prowl dropped Sari's key into her hand and left silently to go to his room. I shifted my weight off of my sore leg, my balance still off, I shook a little when I tried to balance on one leg.

Ratchet seemed to notice my issue and spoke up again.

"Are you okay? Did you get injured on the way back?" he asked. I shook my head, the frustration of being alive hitting me again.

"No to both questions. I've been like this since Prowl brought me back. My leg is sore and I can't find my slagging balance." I said. Ratchet scanned my leg with a small scanner attached to his forearm.

"You probably won't like this, kid... The explosion that took you offline fractured your leg, and, since the undertaker bots didn't set the break, it looks like Sari's key healed it in the wrong position." Ratchet said. I sighed, facepalming. This had been a really bad day for me.

"It's fixable, right?" I said.

"Yes, but I'll have to re-break your leg and set it correctly." Ratchet said. I made a face, then sighed again.

"Whatever, might as well get it over with." I said, limping for the medi-lab. Ratchet had to help me up since I couldn't really manage to get on the table at the moment. He had me lie back, and fired his EMP generator at my leg until it was numb.

"You might not want to watch, kid..." Ratchet said, searching for the break and finding it. I instead looked at the ceiling, but I felt him take my leg and jerk it abruptly. I heard something snap, followed by a dull ache, but thanks to Ratchet's EMP generator it didn't really hurt. I felt Ratchet moving my leg different ways until it clicked and held.

"Got it, just let me get a splint on it and try not to walk too much." he said. I held still while he immobilized my leg, then sat up. I frowned, thinking to when I was dead.

It had been bright, peaceful, and my mom and sister had embraced me like we would never let go of each other. I couldn't remember much about the place, but I still saw Tess and my mother reaching for me and crying as I was sucked back into my body.

Ratchet noticed my expression, putting away his tools he leaned down to me.

"Something else eating you, kid?" he asked. I put my face in my hands, contemplating whether to tell him or not. I made up my mind that if there was anyone I could trust, the old medic definitely fell into the list. I explained why I was upset and how I didn't want to be brought back. Ratchet listened quietly, never interrupting until the end.

"I really don't know what to say, kid, other than the fact about Prowl. I understand what he did was wrong, but understand why he did it. I've seen the way he looks at you, I've seen that expression thousands of times. He loves you Hayli, and I'm sure he is paying for what he did even more than you. Prowl may not show his expressions well, but I'll tell you this; since the day you went offline, he didn't sleep and I could tell you were always on his mind." Ratchet said. I still didn't forgive him for what he did, though my expression softened a bit.

"In the woods I told him the same thing I told you...but I didn't think about what I was saying. I...I told him I hated him and if he truly loved me he would have let me go." I said, looking up at Ratchet. He looked at me sympathetically.

"I'm sure in time you'll find it in your Spark to forgive him, until then, try to give each other some breathing room." Ratchet said. I dropped my gaze to my leg, then looked back up to Ratchet.

"Thanks for everything, Ratchet. You've patched me up and saved my life a few times, for that I'm grateful. I don't mind your advice either." I said. Ratchet actually smiled. He helped me down, and I waved his offer of crutches to simply walk with a limp for a while. I was just leaving the medi-lab when Sari about bowled me over. She moved back, a grin on her face.

"What are you smiling at?" I asked. She dragged me, though carefully, towards the exit of the plant.

"Don't you want a new jet pack? I wanted you to meet my dad too." Sari said.

"Your dad? I thought you're a techno-organic like me, how exactly do you have a father?" I wondered aloud. Sari shrugged.

"His DNA got mixed with a protoform and I was the result. So technically he's my dad. Come on, I'll go get Pr-" Sari was saying when I cut her off.

"No... I mean, can't Bumblebee take me instead?" I blurted. Sari looked at me questioningly, then called him.

"Suit yourself, one way or another you're getting to Sumdac tower." Sari said, equipping her helmet and activating her jet pack before taking off. Bumblebee came up behind me, transforming and revving his engine.

"Sweet! I've been dying to go for a drive, you might wanna hang on though..." Bumblebee said as I hopped in. I didn't really like riding with any of the Autobots, I was almost too big to fit in any of their vehicle modes. They didn't seem to mind though, and after about ten minutes of holding frantically onto the door panel as Bumblebee whipped around the corners we arrived at Sumdac tower. I shakily got out of Bumblebee's car mode and he laughed at me.

The ride had seriously screwed up my already iffy balance, and my splinted leg didn't help either. Sari was waiting for us, and she smacked Bumblebee's hood when he laughed.

"Cut it out, she's had rough time. You can go home now, we'll be flying back in a little while." Sari scolded. Bee did a 180 and sped off, beeping his horn as he went.

"Please tell me there's an elevator in there..." I said, craning back in order to see the top of the tower. Sari laughed.

"Yes, there is. Now come on!" she said, pulling on me. I brushed her off, following her with as slight a limp as I could manage. It was hard to walk anyway, the lower part of my leg had been what was injured, and because of the splint it was difficult to bend it in order to move. Sari trotted across the lobby, stopping in front of an elevator door. I made it there on my own time and she hopped inside the elevator. Taking her key, she put it in a slot next to the buttons and it flashed.

"The only way to get to my dad's private floor is either for me to fly or use my key in the elevator. I didn't want to leave you alone, so this is alright until you can fly again." Sari said. We rode in silence until the top, and Sari danced out of the elevator, waiting for me. I had just limped past the doors when something made her turn and she squealed. She ran across the room and hug attacked a guy that looked about in his forties.

"Hi, daddy!" Sari said.

"Isaac Sumdac?" I inquired. Sari stepped away, and her dad stepped forward.

"Yes, and you must be Hayli. I've been hearing so much about you, though I thought you weren't with us anymore. How are you alive, may I ask?" Professor Sumdac asked. I simply pointed at the key around Sari's neck, not going into detail. He looked at me in understanding, then turned and went into another room.

"I believe I have something for you, Hayli." Professor Sumdac said and I followed him to the next room. He pulled a blue and black jet pack off the floor that was identical to my old one and held it out to me. I took it gratefully, slipping it on.

"Thank you, Mr. Sumdac. I much prefer flying to riding with the Autobots or walking, as you can see." I said, motioning to the splint on my leg.

"You're injured?" Sumdac said. I shrugged.

"Long story." I said. Sari called me, and Professor Sumdac and I both turned in her direction.

"Come on, slowpoke, let's go!" she called. I rolled my eyes, talking under my breath to Professor Sumdac.

"Quite the impatient one, isn't she?" I said. Sumdac chuckled, holding out his hand.

"It was nice meeting you, keep up the good work, try to keep from getting hurt though." Mr. Sumdac said as I shook his hand.

"No promises." I said, grinning. I activated my jet pack and flew after Sari out of a window she had opened.


	29. Chapter 29

It had been a few weeks, and Ratchet had deemed my leg fully healed, though since I hadn't been using it for a while it was weak. I went to the training room by myself and sighed. I had a long way to go before I was back to normal. My leg wasn't very sturdy and I'd been struggling with my balance ever since Prowl brought me back.

I focused on exercises at first that would strengthen my leg and improve my balance, most of which consisted of holding the 'tree' pose for longer and longer periods. I gradually moved to light gymnastics, eventually going back to my old routines. I had to admit, it felt good to be back on my feet and flying through the air.

I stuck the landing at the end of a flip and whirled at a small noise to face the door. There was no one there, but I knew it had been Prowl that was watching me. I facepalmed, walking out of the room and grabbing my jet pack. I grumbled to myself as I activated my jet pack and exited the plant. I flew to the woods, landing in a clearing and trying to calm my thoughts.

_Why can't he just leave me alone? Hasn't he done enough already?!_ I thought. My ears suddenly pricked at the sound of conversation and I stepped quietly through the trees, silent as darkness.

There were six Decepticons standing in another clearing, it was Starscream and all five of his clones. How Ramjet got out I didn't know, but I had to go get backup, like now!

I backed up quietly and slowly, just about to turn around, I ran into something. I spun to see Prowl, he had followed me. My foot had hit his, and the sound of metal on metal had attracted the Decepticons' attention. Quickly, we were surrounded and I drew my sword, on guard. One of Starscream's clones drew back, cowering.

"A-Are you sure this was such a good idea? What if they call reinforcements? We'll be slagged!" the clone said. He had a similar paint job to the original Starscream, and another clone with an odd, yellow paint job activated something on his forearm. I heard a sort of deep, pulsing sound, and felt something short out in my ear.

"Skywarp, put a muffler on it. Nice job, Sunstorm, if I do say so myself. Though I, Thundercracker, am far superior to all of you insignificant clones." Another clone with a dark paint job said. I tried to use my commlink, and found that it was the item that had short-circuited. Annoyed, aware of Prowl standing back-to-back with me, I sensed he had tried and failed to use his commlink as well.

"It's no use, Sunstorm used an EMP pulse to short out your commlinks. It looks like this will be easy..." Starscream said. I noticed what appeared to be a femme version of Starscream standing next to him, and I also recognized Ramjet standing behind and to the side of the femme.

"How did you get out of the Elite Guard's prison?" I ventured to ask, my question directed at Ramjet.

"Oh, I had absolutely no help at all from Starscream and the rest of his clones." Ramjet lied. I saw the femme facepalm herself and start to say something. Starscream turned and gave her a look.

"Don't start, Slipstream." Starscream said. Prowl spoke up from behind me.

"Why are you here?" he asked. Starscream answered.

"It's not really any of your business, now is it? Though now that we've got you and your little friend there, it won't be hard to take you both offline." Starscream said. My eyes widened slightly, and Starscream evilly ordered his clones on how to attack.

"Thundercracker, Sunstorm, Slipstream, take care of Prowl. Ramjet, Skywarp, you're with me. Let's have some fun..." Starscream ordered and he and his clones launched their attack. Cyber-ninjas though we were, I knew Prowl and I wouldn't be able to win, there were too many of them and we were too busy dodging attacks to land an attack of our own.

I saw Prowl catch my eye in between clashing with Sunstorm, and I knew he was thinking the same thing as me. Here, now, as I was fighting to stay alive; a realization dawned that I couldn't be angry with Prowl anymore. He had acted foolishly, but out of his affection for me, and I supposed he thought it as a way to pay me back after all the times I had saved him without thinking.

My sword clashed against Ramjet's arm, and he made a face as he pulled back and examined the scratch on his armor.

"That didn't hurt at all." Ramjet said. I took slight satisfaction in the fact I had hurt him, only to see something out of the corner of my eye that pretty much ended my hope.

Prowl had been dodging shots from each clone, though it was just too much. Thundercracker landed a hit square in Prowl's chest, and he was knocked backward onto the ground. I could see he was still conscious, but barely, his optics were very dim, almost not even on at all. Whirling, I called his name, only to have a blinding blow strike me across the back of my shoulders.

Sparks popped across my vision and I fell to one knee, trying to regain my bearings. I felt a large hand grab the back of my neck and hoist me into the air, my sword was wrenched from my grasp and I was turned to see that it was Starscream that had a hold of me. I tried to yank his hand off of my neck, but he was too strong. Sneering coldly, he raised a clawed hand.

"Don't feel bad, you'll get to join Prowl in the Realm of All Sparks." Starscream said. He reared back before ramming his claws directly into the front of my throat. I could see my own energon splatter onto the ground and I made a strangled, choked sound. Starscream sneered, yanking his hand out of my throat and tossing me to the ground. I coughed, more of my energon spilling onto the forest floor as I felt it running down my chest plate as well.

Starscream motioned his clones to fall back.

"Let's go, neither of these two are gonna make it." Starscream said.

"That's what you said the last time you tried to take that girl offline..." said Slipstream as she followed the rest of the clones and Starscream into the air.

"Shut up." I heard Starscream say. He and his clones left, leaving Prowl and I alone. I looked up to see he wasn't far away, though his optics were now dark. I was afraid he might have been offline, but I saw his armor still retained its color. I clasped a hand over my throat and staggered to him before falling. My energon was squeezing out from between my fingers and I knew I was probably dying.

Prowl's chest looked like a mirror image of when Starscream had blasted me instead. Without Ratchet or Sari's key, I knew this was the end of us both. I saw Prowl turn his head slightly, and his optics came on, though they flickered a lot. I coughed again, turning so I didn't spatter him with energon, though he had a fair amount of it running out of his chest as well.

"Are you alright?" Prowl said quietly. I shook my head, momentarily removing my hand only to have energon gush out of my throat.

"Neither are you..." I croaked, my injury making it hard to speak. Getting weaker, I collapsed forward onto the ground close to him. Coughing repeatedly, I turned my head to him, my optics starting to flicker as well. I could see his energon mixing with my own on the ground out of the corner of my eye. I could tell we were both going to lose consciousness soon, and I choked out what had been weighing on my mind.

"Prowl, please...stay awake for this. I'm so sorry...for what I said...I know I hurt you deeply." I paused often, my speech raspy and hitching because of the energon filling my throat. "I don't hate you...I never did...deep down it made me love you even more...that you would...do anything to have me back... Please forgive me, Prowl..." I said. I almost thought he was out cold and didn't hear me, but his optics lit up slightly more and he turned his head to completely face me.

"I already have..." Prowl said. I felt a tear of mixed emotions slide down my face and I looked away from him, the world getting fuzzy.

"I love you, Prowl." I said. I felt him take my hand, comfortingly holding it while we were both struggling to stay alive.

"I love you too." Prowl said. I saw his optics flicker out a moment before mine did as well.

...

~Prowl's POV

I truly thought this was the end for both of us, but I knew it would be okay. We would still be together, and I was now certain she had forgiven me. My last conscious thought before it all slipped away was the feeling of her hand closed inside of mine...


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter XXIV ~ Ratchet's POV

I turned to the main scanner in my lab when it emitted a small alarm. There were six Decepticon energy signals that were fast leaving the Detroit area. I wondered why it would give the alarm if they were heading away, then I saw another two signals. They weren't moving, and the energy signatures were getting fainter and fainter. I knew it was Prowl and Hayli, and I feared the worst.

I transformed, calling Optimus and Sari as I went, and Optimus called over my commlink.

"What's so urgent, Ratchet?" he asked.

"Prowl and Hayli got in the middle of a Decepticon ambush; I think they're badly injured. Their signals weren't moving and their energy signatures were faint." I said, tracking their signals as I spoke. It looked like they were in the woods, not such an easy place for Optimus and I to maneuver.

I pulled off-road, transforming to get through the trees more easily. I didn't understand why Prowl and Hayli liked the woods so much, then again, when you're a few million stellar cycles old you don't like to go out much anymore. I was getting closer to their signals, though they were both very close to offline. Sari weaved through the undergrowth next to me, and Optimus was having a bit of a difficult time because of his size. On the bright side, we'd probably be able to drive back because of him clearing a path. We were very close to Prowl and Hayli, and I broke through a line of trees to find them in a clearing.

Even from here, I could tell they were pretty far gone. Both of them were unconscious, and the energon from their wounds had pooled and mixed on the ground. I could also see something that tugged at my Spark. Being a field medic for so long, I would have thought I would be used to the sight of young bots mangled and offline, but this was different. These two were part of my team, my family, and hey, I'll admit I have a soft spot for the kids. I walked up and knelt by them, confirming what I thought across the field.

Prowl was on his back, Hayli on her stomach, but I could see their servos linked in what they thought was their final embrace. Sari stepped up next to me, tears streaming down her face as she yanked off her key and ran to Prowl. Her key didn't even glow, let alone heal him. She frustratedly tried it with Hayli, but to no effect. She turned to me, helpless.

"They're going to die, aren't they Ratchet?" she sniffed, clenching her temperamental key in her hand. I glanced at them, assessing with a medic's eye the damage that they suffered.

Prowl had a mirror wound of when Hayli was shot by Starscream, so I assumed it had been he and his clones that had harmed our teammates. Even though Hayli was face down, I could see that the front of her neck was a mangled mess. It looked like a major energon line had been severed, that would explain the large pool of energon around her. As for the moment they were both online, but I didn't know how long they had until they were beyond saving. My serious side kicked in and I became all about my work.

"Optimus, take Prowl and Hayli, drive fast but carefully. We need to get back to the plant now if there's any chance of keeping them online. Let's go!" I ordered. Optimus transformed, and I gently unwound Prowl and Hayli's fingers from each other before loading up Prowl. I bandaged Hayli's throat to keep her from bleeding too much more on the way back and laid her next to Prowl.

Transforming, I put on my siren and Optimus did the same as we sped back to the plant. I called on Optimus, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead's commlinks.

"As soon as we get back to the plant, I need all of you in the medi-lab for a minute. Prowl and Hayli lost a lot of energon, they'll need transfusions. That means all of us need to help them out." I said. We got back to the plant quickly, and Optimus drove straight into the medi-lab, waiting until I got there.

Bumblebee and Bulkhead hurried in, and I had Bulkhead help me lay Prowl on an operating table. I gently lifted Hayli next, putting her on an adjacent table and scanning her and Prowl to asses the damage. Hayli's main concern was her energon loss, and I was correct in my diagnosis that a main line in her neck had been cut. I took a syringe and motioned Optimus forward. Taking his arm, I quickly withdrew about as much energon as I was comfortable taking from him before pulling the needle out.

I attached the syringe to a drip and stuck another needle into the back of Hayli's hand. I programmed a Spark monitor on both of them, the beats almost identically weak and slow. Prowl was of more concern to me at the moment, but I was just trying to get them both stable before I could actually repair them. Picking up a small laser, I repaired the gash in the main energon line in Hayli's throat before wrapping a bandage around her neck snugly. I could fix the damage to her armor later and she would be alright as soon as Optimus's energon made its way into her system. I turned to Prowl, his still form eerie on the operating table. I made a drip for him as well, using Bulkhead as a donor this time. His wound was identical to the one Hayli had received a few months ago, and I looked at his fried circuitry as hopelessly as I had before.

He actually was damaged more than Hayli had been, I could see a glimpse of his Spark beating faintly under the edge of his cracked armor in time to the monitor. Optimus motioned Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Sari out of the room and he followed. I got to work aligning circuits and wires in his chest, and I had to put an interface patch in a few places in order to just get him stable enough for me to take a breather. I sighed in slight relief. Neither of them were out of the woods yet, but I was confident that they would survive. I wasn't sure if either of them could hear me, but I spoke anyway.

"You two are incredibly lucky, you know that? I don't think the team would have survived without you either." I smiled to myself. "What would we have done without the two greatest cyber-ninjas in existence?" I said. I looked at them, they both were still unconscious, which was probably a good thing because they were going to be sore when they woke up. I adjusted their energon drips and checked their Spark monitors before becoming fully satisfied I could take a break. Their Sparkbeats were almost exactly the same rhythm, though Prowl's was stronger than Hayli's.

I walked out in the living room, exhausted, and everyone looked at me expectantly. Also being a medic for so long, I knew the sadness of breaking bad news, but I also knew the joy of bearing good news, and this was one of those times.

"I've got them both stable; they're going to make it." I said. Relief spread through the room visibly and I allowed a smile to cross my face. Sari hugged my foot and I picked her up, letting her stand on my hand.

"You're the best, Ratchet." Sari said.

...

~ Hayli's POV

After I lost consciousness, I was surprised not to find myself in the Realm of All Sparks, in fact, I feared that Prowl had gone offline while I was going to be alright. My reality returned slowly, my hearing being the first thing restored. A steady beeping noise that sometimes broke into two different rhythms let me know I was alive, along with Prowl.

My throat burned, and I cracked my eyes open to get my bearings. My hand ached too, and when I brought it into view I saw it was because I had a needle fastened securely in it. I followed the tube from my hand and saw it was an energon drip hanging over my head. I brushed my hand over my throat, finding the uneven edges of the wound underneath a bandage that was wrapped snugly but not tightly around my neck.

I turned my head to see Prowl, who was struggling to regain consciousness. His optics flickered on, and I heard him give a faint groan. He had an energon drip as well, and a large bandage covered his chest. I watched him regain his bearings, then he turned to see me.

"We made it...imagine that..." he said. I tried to speak as well, but my voice sounded terrible.

"Yeah, we both look like train wrecks. God...I sound awful..." I joked. I suddenly had the urge to cough and I turned away from Prowl as I did. A small drop of energon flecked my hand when I took it away from my mouth, and I hastily wiped it away.

"Are you okay?" Prowl asked. I nodded, rasping out a reply.

"Yeah, just not quite healed yet." I said. Prowl smiled, resting his head back against the table where he lay.

...

We both occupied the medi-lab for a while as Ratchet repaired us gradually. We were finally recovered enough to leave, though not allowed to go on missions for a while. One day when the others were out, I walked to Prowl's room where he was sitting on the floor. I smiled when I saw he was stroking Stella with one finger and I knocked on the doorframe.

He looked up, and Stella immediately trotted over to me with a _mrrow. _Prowl still had a bandage on his chest over the hole in his armor, as I did around my throat. I looked at him, somewhat embarrassed, and spoke.

"So is this mess finally over?" I asked. Prowl gave me a grin.

"It appears for the time being, yes." he said. I stepped closer to him, biting my lip and working up the nerve. He looked up at me, curiosity in his optics, and I decided to just bite the bullet.

With the sun filtering through the leaves of his tree and my cat watching neutrally, I stepped forward and kissed Prowl.

**And this, my friends, concludes New Ties. I shall start work on posting its sequel! Stay tuned for more of Hayli's adventures!**


End file.
